On Sunday, President Joe Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election. He delivered this message using X, a decision that highlights the medium’s power over politics, for better or worse.
X has the advantages that most social media networks possess over traditional news. Users can report stories more quickly than conventional outlets, as seen in the Trump assassination attempt. X also allows more press freedom. The COVID-19 lab leak theory and the Hunter Biden laptop story, which mainstream publications refused to publish, found an audience through X. These attributes of social media have their concomitant downsides, as false information and hateful views are popularized. But there are some elements of X’s influence that are unique.
In function, X is the platform best suited to mass political discussion. The ways in which discussion threads form and can be shared suits its role as the public square. Because its design naturally fits politics, it is disproportionately used by the political class.
X is the primary way politicians communicate with the public. Trump’s use of the network before his 2021 ban and Biden’s announcement on Sunday demonstrate this fact. The older channels of cable news appearances and emails have become less relevant.
It is also the preferred social media platform for journalists. Fifty-one percent of journalists consider social media to be important for their work, and 36% say X is the most valuable social media outlet they use, more than any other platform. X’s popularity among journalists and politicians shows its political power.
While X has allowed everyday people an unprecedented participation in political discourse, X remains a forum largely disconnected from the general population. Only 22% of Americans use X, compared to the 83% who use YouTube or the 68% on Facebook. Contrasting that with X’s usage among politicians and journalists, it is clear it finds its audience among the elite. Of course, an elite political bubble has existed in every civilization in history. But ours is uniquely affected by its presence on a social media platform.
Social media companies need to keep users engaged to generate advertising revenue. They keep consumers online through algorithms and interfaces that encourage strong emotional responses. This has led elite political discourse to take on the characteristics of hyperpassionate populist politics.
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This means the hyperbole and conspiratorial thinking encouraged by social media is not kept to demagogic theater. Not only is political discourse affected by social media, but so are the institutions and people directly engaged in politics. After all, the people who work in Washington are now finding and discussing their news through X. This means the worst of social media politics has infected the halls of power.
X is a unique social platform that shapes American politics. Its use as a channel for political discussion, especially among the elite, has brought the benefits and drawbacks of social media closer to political power than any other medium. Greater freedom and wider participation are now more possible than ever before in elite politics. But X also makes the working of politics less civil and serious. Whether it helps or hurts the republic, X has changed American politics.