The end of the “hegemony” of X as the most used social media platform by researchers has been strongly shaped by political-geographical factors and Elon Musk’s intervention into US politics, according to a new study.
Since Musk rebranded Twitter to X, many within higher education – including some universities themselves?– have decided to leave the platform, particularly since the billionaire threw his support behind Donald Trump in the 2024 US election.
Researchers from Arizona State University and the University of Granada examined almost 15,000 publications from multidisciplinary and Library and Information Science (LIS) journals between January 2024 and March 2025.
Across the whole period, Bluesky has a much smaller presence compared?with X in terms of engaged users – those who comment on papers.
However,??a “notable increase” in Bluesky accounts mentioning papers published in multidisciplinary journals in November 2024, which the paper said was likely influenced by political and platform change.
“We observe a clear surge in mentions beginning in September 2024 and continuing into early 2025, particularly around the United States presidential election and subsequent political events.”
The shift in users and increasing diversification between the two platforms, particularly from late 2024 onwards, coincided with “major US political events in which Elon Musk has actively intervened”.
After successfully helping Trump win the battle for the White House, Musk was appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency – an organisation?that?has slashed federal contracts and found few friends within the scientific community.
The study says the results reveal a scholarly landscape where conversations are no longer concentrated on a single platform, but are now “genuinely distributed between X and Bluesky”.
“This reflects that the response to platform changes is not only field-dependent, but also strongly shaped by political-geographical factors.”
It comes after a recent by?Andy Tattersall, an information specialist at?the?Sheffield Centre of Health and Related Research, found a third of UK universities have now quit X but, while the number of active accounts on Bluesky has risen, many institutions are still not posting regularly.
An academic’s guide to Bluesky
Altmetric,?which collates mentions of publications from news sources, blogs and social media, has been tracking Bluesky, which was originally created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, since October 2024.
A previous study?revealed that Bluesky hosted more posts linked to work published in 2025 for the first time in March – declaring “the days of X’s dominance are over”.
The new paper reached a similar conclusion, adding: “What is clear is that the Altmetric hegemony of X may have come to an end, as for the first time there is a clear alternative in Bluesky, which even matches user engagement in ways that would have seemed unthinkable until recently.
“Only time will tell how effective and lasting this platform shift truly is.”
It says further research was needed to learn why Bluesky has succeeded where other alternatives –?such as Threads or Mastodon?– did not.
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