The rebranding of Twitter to X by Elon Musk has decreased its usage among researchers, with universities moving away from the platform following Musk's political involvement. A study analyzed 15,000 research publications, indicating that while Bluesky had fewer engaged users compared to X, there was a notable increase in mentions of research papers on Bluesky, particularly around the time of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The findings suggest an evolving scholarly communication landscape, with engagement now shared more equally between X and Bluesky due to significant political changes.
Researchers from Arizona State University and the University of Granada examined almost 15,000 publications from multidisciplinary and Library and Information Science journals between January 2024 and March 2025.
The shift in users and increasing diversification between the two platforms, particularly from late 2024 onward, coincided with major U.S. political events in which Elon Musk has actively intervened.
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.
After successfully helping Trump win the battle for the White House, Musk was appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency-an organization that slashed federal contracts and found few friends within the scientific community.
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