The Platform Wars

Are we seeing a silo-ing of the two parties when it comes to social platforms? (FWIW)

X: Per a new report from the digital spending newsletter FWIW, 7 out of the 10 biggest political ad spenders on the site formerly known as Twitter are Republicans.

Snapchat: 7 out of the 10 top political ad spenders on Snapchat are Democratic.

TikTok: The top political news brands and creators on the Chinese-owned platform are a mix of political orientations, but tend to lean left (the red and blue in the chart below represent media companies vs. individual creators, not Republicans and Democrats).

• Only one of the biggest TikTok news influencers — a group that includes Dylan Page (centrist), Josh Helfgott (liberal), Philip DeFranco (centrist), V Spehar (liberal) and Link Lauren (RFK Jr. supporter) — would likely be described as right-leaning.

Context: A growing share of Americans, especially young people, are getting their news from social media.

• Since Elon Musk took over X in 2022, it’s widely become viewed as friendlier to conservatives and has attracted more right-leaning users.

• While many in the GOP, including Donald Trump, have spoken out against TikTok in the past, Trump and other Republicans have been surprisingly successful on the platform.

• Republicans are far more distrustful of mainstream media, and more likely to get their news from nontraditional channels like social media.

Bubba’s Two Cents

The world of social media news and politics is a strange, often dumb and often ugly beast. And there’s no denying its growing impact on the national political discourse. On the other hand, as a recent study on Twitter found, extremely online users are still a minority of Americans, and their views aren’t necessarily a reflection of the real world consensus. The point being, take all of the chaos and weirdness you see online with a big grain of salt.