When Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 and rebranded it as X, he promised a new era for the platform. One that would champion free speech, innovation and a broader vision as the “everything app.” Fast forward to 2025, and the story is different: millions of users are leaving, journalists and media outlets are abandoning ship, and X’s cultural relevance is under threat. What happened?

The Post-Election Exodus

The 2024 US election marked a tipping point. Musk’s vocal endorsement of Donald Trump and the subsequent surge in political misinformation and toxic discourse sent shockwaves through the platform. Prominent media organizations like NPR and The Guardian publicly announced their departures, citing the platform’s failure to curb hate speech and its increasing role as a vector for conspiracy theories and bigotry. Political affiliations aside, the changes to the platform (from Twitter to X) did have an impact.

The Numbers Tell the Story

According to analysts at Emarketer, X is projected to lose 7 million monthly active users in the US alone between Musk’s takeover and the end of 2025. This isn’t a fleeting reaction to recent events. It is and has been a sustained trend. But how many of them are journalists?

Here are Some Interesting Findings from Pew Research…

Bluesky adoption surging among news influencers: The share of sampled news influencers with a Bluesky account nearly doubled, climbing from 21% before Election Day 2024 to 43% by March 2025.

X remains the dominant platform: As of early 2025, 82% of news influencers in the study had X accounts, nearly unchanged from 85% in summer 2024.

Overlap between Bluesky and X users: Only 6% were only on Bluesky, while 37% used both platforms. A significant 46% remained on X only.

But, what are news influencers? Accounts that regularly discussed current events and civic issues and had at least 100,000 followers.

And what about journalists? Prominent media organizations like NPR and The Guardian publicly announced their departures, but a Mercury Analytics survey revealed X still remains prominent for many journalists, with at least 76% having accounts.

Other findings indicate that there has been a notable shift towards alternative platforms, with 25% of journalists now on Bluesky in comparison to 17% on Threads and 9% on Mastodon.

Why Do Journalists Stay on X?

• X is still a fast and far-reaching platform for breaking news
• Many journalists have already built a following – giving up that reach and authority is tough!
• Limited alternative platforms with the same amount of reach and influence

Journalists and news influencers are largely staying on X, often exploring new platforms while continuing to post regularly.

So, to answer the question… while millions are leaving the platform (about 6% total of US X users are expected to leave this year), only some journalists left X. The true number is hard to nail down. Entire news outlets are boycotting the platform for reasons mostly political in nature. But journalists and news influencers seem to value their established platform and will likely continue to post on X until there’s no ROI left.