• by Colin Kirkland , June 13, 2024

A new study published by Pew Research shows that X, the microblogging app previously known as Twitter, has the most devoted following of news-seekers in the social media landscape.

While the majority of U.S. users on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok reported that news was not a reason that they used the sites, X users stated that keeping up with news is either a major or minor reason they return to the platform, with about half saying they regularly get news there. 

According to Pew, Facebook outpaces all social media sites as a news source for Americans, with 30% of U.S. adults regularly getting news there, compared to Instagram (16%), TikTok (14%) or X (12%).

However, half of X’s user base regularly get news on the app, compared to TikTok (40%), Facebook (37%) and Instagram (30%) -- showing that X is more of a news destination than other sites. 

Furthermore, X was the only platform on which a majority of users (65%) named news as a main reason they use it, including 25% who named keeping up with the news as a major reason they use X, compared to 15% of TikTok users, 7% of Facebook users and 8% of Instagram users. 

Following Twitter's news-in-real-time legacy, X also stood out as a place to see breaking news, with 75% of users reporting that they see information about breaking news in real-time there, compared to Facebook (58%), TikTok (55%) and Instagram (44%). 

The sources that users are seeing news from on these platforms differ as well. While most Instagram and Facebook users say “friends and family” make up the primary basis of where they see news, this is the least common source (26%) of information for X consumers compared to influencers or celebrities (49%), advocacy or nonprofit organizations (46%), other people they don't know personally (75%) or news outlets and journalists, which comprise 80% of how X users are seeing their news. 

What may the greatest concern in Pew's findings is that while X touts that it has the most devoted base of news seekers, it also ranked the highest in terms of inaccurate reporting. All of the platforms Pew studied proliferate misinformation-based news stories, but 86% of X's base reported seeing inaccurate news, and 37% say they see it often. 

As Meta makes definitive moves to curb its news output on apps like Instagram, Facebook and Threads -- the only other potential breaking-news alternative to X -- Elon Musk's app reigns supreme in the proliferation and digestion of news content, which could have effects on the upcoming presidential election, especially due to the amount of misinformation circling the platform.