Democrats can’t quit Elon Musk’s X

For politicians, it turns out an addictive social media platform is hard to quit, in spite of any moral qualms they might have about its owner.

In the past few weeks, Elon Musk — owner of X, formerly known as Twitter — has gone from provocateur to full-on villain for much of the American left. He personally amplified antisemitic conspiracy theories, sued a progressive research group over claims that ads ran next to pro-Nazi posts and allowed a reported spike in Hamas-affiliated propaganda tied to the Israel-Hamas war to go largely unmoderated.

Liberal lawmakers Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) had seen enough. On Tuesday, they sent a letter to X cosigned by 25 other House Democrats asking Musk to stop the spread of Hamas-related content, claiming X is profiting from Hamas’ terrorist propaganda on the platform.

When they sent the letter, Goldman and Raskin promptly shared the news — on X.

“As much as we’d personally like to not have to engage with a platform that boosts this kind of shit, we do have an obligation to speak to constituents on Twitter, and it’s still a very effective way to reach them,” Simone Kanter, a spokesperson for Goldman, told POLITICO.

Politicians are finding they just don’t have a competitor for X’s free, real-time ability to reach voters and journalists. X is still the closest thing to a virtual town square for the Washington conversation, even if users are spending less time on the platform since Musk took over in October 2022.

Outside the Beltway, it’s still where powerful players go to share news, including seemingly every character in the OpenAI drama over the past several days — with recently reinstated CEO Sam Altman, president Greg Brockman, co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella going to X first to tweet out the latest twists and turns in the leadership saga.

“The press still lives and dies on Twitter, and as long as they’re there, it’s going to be hard for elected officials to avoid it,” said Andrew Bleeker, president of Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic-aligned communications firm.

There’s also a strong first-mover advantage in big shared platforms like social media. Having launched in 2006, X also has a head start over newer competitors like BlueSky and Meta’s Threads, since it has an established user base richly stocked with users interested in politics.

“Because users are heavily engaged, you can create some buzz around your announcements where it's more difficult to drive that organic traffic elsewhere,” said Mark Jablonowski, the president of DSPolitical, a digital ad firm that supports Democratic candidates.

One issue for X is that “using the platform” isn’t the same as giving it money, and Musk’s antics have definitely dried up advertising. Goldman’s office said due to the misinformation and propaganda on X, his office has stopped all political advertising on the platform since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

There’s also been a mass exodus of advertisers like IBM, Disney and Apple from X, days after Musk’s antisemitic endorsement and a Media Matters for America report finding ads were placed next to pro-Nazi content. Musk sued the self-described progressive research group, saying they manipulated the platform to defame X.

X did not respond to a request for comment to the lawmakers’ pushback. CEO Linda Yaccarino did attempt to allay advertisers’ and advocates’ concerns in a tweet last week that “there’s absolutely no place” for antisemitism and discrimination on the platform.

Raskin told POLITICO he could see a day he leaves the platform, saying he believes there “could be a breaking point if nothing changes.” And he said it’d send a more powerful message if there was a mass lawmaker exodus. “I would definitely reassess with my colleagues — this has more significance if a lot of people agree to do it together.”

Similarly, Kanter said if Musk doesn’t address their concerns, “we’ll absolutely consider voting with our feet and getting out.”

Some politicians are starting to hedge their bets and build up followers on alternative sites, like Meta’s Threads, launched in July as a direct competitor to X.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris opened accounts on Threads on Monday, days after publicly condemning Musk’s antisemitic comments. While a White House official said they’re aware of the increase in hate speech on X, the launch of accounts on Threads had been in the works for weeks.

“Threads feels like the most obvious viable alternative right now,” said Crystal Patterson, who formerly was Facebook’s head of global civic partnerships and worked for several Democratic presidential campaigns. “With President Biden joining Threads, I assume Threads will continue to grow and be used more.”

“Of course,” she added, “the kicker is they also have a ton of issues with Meta.”