X’s declining engagement and diminishing ability to drive traffic have intensified scrutiny of the Elon Musk-owned social network, prompting renewed debate among analysts, publishers, and advocacy groups. The discussion follows several days of unfavorable publicity surrounding the platform’s performance and relevance within the digital media ecosystem.
Debate Erupts Over X’s Ability To Drive Publisher Traffic
Over the weekend, X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, and data analyst Nate Silver, formerly of FiveThirtyEight, publicly disagreed over whether the platform remains effective in directing traffic to publishers. The exchange gained momentum following a report from NiemanLab on Wednesday, which suggested that adding links to X posts reduces engagement.
Bier argued that publishers were not using the platform effectively, encouraging outlets such as The New York Times to create posts that foster conversation rather than merely sharing headlines with links. Silver countered that even when content was tailored to generate on-platform discussion, it delivered limited referral traffic.
“The conversion to off-site traffic is very middling,” Silver wrote on X. “Maybe 2–3% of the readership for a Silver Bulletin article instead of ~1%.” He added that Twitter previously drove approximately 15% of traffic to FiveThirtyEight.
Elon Musk responded to Silver’s analysis on the platform, dismissing the data as inaccurate.
EFF Announces Departure After Nearly Two Decades
On Thursday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a prominent digital rights nonprofit, announced it would leave X, citing declining returns from its posts. In a blog post, EFF social media manager Kenyatta Thomas said the decision followed nearly 20 years of activity on the platform.
The organization reported that its posts on Twitter generated between 50 million and 100 million impressions per month in 2018. By 2024, approximately 2,500 posts on the platform produced around 2 million monthly impressions. Last year, 1,500 posts generated roughly 13 million impressions across the entire year.
“To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago,” Thomas wrote.
EFF stated it would continue sharing content on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms on the open social web. The organization clarified that maintaining a presence on these services does not constitute an endorsement.
“We stay because the people on those platforms deserve access to information, too. We stay because some of our most-read posts are the ones criticizing the very platform we’re posting on,” Thomas said. “X is no longer where the fight is happening.”
Publishers And Institutions Follow With High-Profile Exits
EFF joins a growing list of organizations that have left X, including news publishers such as NPR, PBS, The Guardian, and Le Monde, along with academics, celebrities, and local governments.
Some media organizations departed in response to Musk’s decision to label NPR and PBS as “state-affiliated media,” a designation typically associated with government-controlled outlets. Others, such as Le Monde, cited concerns related to Musk’s political affiliations.
For many publishers, traffic considerations historically justified maintaining a presence on the platform. However, declining referrals have reduced that incentive.
NiemanLab Analysis Highlights Engagement Challenges
NiemanLab’s analysis of 18 large publishers and their most recent 200 posts supported claims that posts containing links tend to receive lower engagement. The findings suggested that such practices may negatively affect both current and future performance on the platform.
The report noted that the trend does not necessarily indicate that X is intentionally downranking posts with links. The company has stated it no longer employs such measures, and the findings may instead reflect broader changes in user activity.
Shifting Digital Landscape Adds Pressure On Newsrooms
The debate unfolds amid broader shifts in digital media. Publishers are confronting changing consumer behavior, declining referral traffic from search engines and Facebook, and the growing influence of artificial intelligence, which has altered how audiences access information. These pressures have contributed to newsroom layoffs and closures across the industry.
Silver also noted that X’s engagement dynamics have changed, observing that some highly active accounts generate substantial interactions despite questions about content quality. As an example, he cited the right-wing influencer account “Catturd,” which he said receives more engagement than The New York Times.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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