Americans Can't Agree on What's Wrong With Twitter

While there's broad consensus among Twitter users that the platform is facing some major problems at the moment, Americans are increasingly divided over what those problems actually are. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in March 2023, there is a partisan rift among Twitter users with regards to the question of what's wrong with the platform.

While roughly two thirds of Democratic users think that inaccurate/misleading information and harassment/abuse are major problems on Twitter at the moment, just 37 and 29 percent of Republican users think the same. Conversely, Republicans think that Twitter limiting the visibility of certain posts or banning users altogether are major problems, a view that few Democratic users share.

Overall, the perception of Twitter on both sides of the political spectrum has shifted significantly since Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of the platform last fall. The share of Republican or Republican-leaning users who say that Twitter is mostly bad for American democracy has dropped from 60 percent in 2021 to 21 percent today. Meanwhile Democrats' views have moved in the opposite direction, with 35 percent now saying Twitter is mostly bad for democracy, up from 28 percent two years ago.