Like many users of the social network X, you may have wondered if you had to leave the platform since its takeover by Elon Musk. For some, this question emerged upon the sale of the application to the billionaire; For others, she was able to appear later, when he announced his rallying in the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, for example. Perhaps you were disturbed by changes in algorithm … or exasperated by the apparent Nazi salute of the founder of SpaceX, during the inauguration of the new American president. One thing is certain, the social network has changed a lot in recent years and a question becomes haunting: should we abandon the old Twitter?
Some have already taken the plunge, like the Institut Pasteur, which formalized its departure on January 16, or the Guardianthe big British daily newspaper who stopped posting last November last. On the side of the French press, The world made a similar decision and many Internet users could soon follow their paces.
To encourage the departure of network users to other platforms deemed “more virtuous”, a team led by David Chavalariaias, a mathematics researcher attached to the CNRS, created the “Helloquittex” platform. The principle: helping Internet users to archive the content of their X account then accompany them by transferring their and subscriptions to another platform like Bluesky or Mastodon. In an exchange with our AFP colleagues, the specialist notes that “many users are captive of their audience on X. Some do not manage to decide to leave, fear of losing their sources or their audience.” Its tool – which would therefore be intended to remedy it – experienced a large media impact in a few days.
“On January 20, Donald Trump’s inauguration day, let’s leave X”, could still be read on the home page of the site in mid-January. To do this, the platform offers A range of solutions ranging from the “gel” of an account (which is no longer supplied, like the official account of the newspaper The world) until its outright suppression. “There is a lot of ways of distance from X,” notes David Chavalarias, who says he is satisfied with the number of registrations on the movement site on the scheduled date. For the mathematician, “it is important to have digital identities on different platforms” to free yourself from a network which it deems “objectively dangerous.”
No massive digital exodus
Several days after the return of the New York magnate to the White House, L’Express has therefore chosen to take stock of the balance sheet of Operation Hello left X. Since it is difficult to know the exact number of existing accounts On the Elon Musk platform, our team has made subscribers’ readings of several French and Anglo-Saxon media. And the results have arrested us: since January 15, no account has lost more than 5,000 subscribers (a drop below 0.2 % of their total counter) on X. Conversely, platforms like Bluesky clearly benefited from the movement launched by the developers of Hello left X.
If the growth in the number of Bluesky subscribers of the American media seems generally constant, there is a clear inflection of the increase in the increase in that of the French media at the time of the inauguration of Donald Trump. For example, the official account of our magazine won around 750 additional subscribers in a week, an increase of 16.38 %, while our X account lost approximately 2,000 subscribers. Impossible to know precisely the proportion of subscribers which has migrated from one platform to another, but the observed dynamics question.
If we widen the focal length, we see a similar trend. American data analysts have deciphered The activity of Internet users in Bluesky Based on the number of unique users who liked a post or published on the platform. Two recent activity peaks are clearly observable: the first in mid-November, a few days after the formalization of Elon Musk’s entry to the US government and the second at the time of the presidential inauguration. The butterfly platform seems to come out of the sequence.
“What matters is less the number of accounts than the number of connections between users”, underlines Jean Cattan, doctor of public law and secretary general of the National Digital Council, an advisory body attached directly to the ministry. This social media specialist recalls that a few thousand additional accounts on a platform can represent millions of more connections and promote the development of alternative networks to the old Twitter. “What is fundamental in this movement is propagation outside X,” he explains. In this sense, Operation Hello leaves X seems rather successful.
American platform, European debates
The debate around the movement initiated by David Chavalariaias asks a much more important question: that of portability, namely the possibility for a social network user to transfer this data from one platform to another, as we can transfer his number telephone from one operator to another for example. Currently, the regulations in force (the European DMA) encourages economic actors to facilitate this portability, but it is not restrictive. For Jean CattanHello leaves X “is a reminder to order for the authorities, which must act to impose this portability on the platforms.”
At the moment, Elon Musk refuses to do so, certainly hoping to preserve his network from a larger flight to its main competitors. In an article published this Saturday, January 25, THE Wall Street Journal Unveils an email that the billionaire would have sent to Twitter employees reporting on “stagnant user” growth “and” insignificant recipes “of the company.