Buying Followers: The Political Consequences of the Twitter Acquisition

A handful of individuals control social media platforms that collectively reach billions. Does this control give those owners influence over their platforms' users? To investigate this question we study the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October 2022. Musk changed Twitter from a predominantly liberal platform to one favored by conservatives. Using panel survey data on over 8,000 respondents and 145 survey questions, we find that the issue preferences of pre-acquisition Twitter users became more conservative post-acquisition. Twitter users moved right on economic and social issues -- especially racial issues -- but not on climate, an issue where Musk is less conservative. Republican Twitter users became more pro-Republican, but there was no aggregate move toward the Republican Party, in part due to backlash by strong Democratic partisans who left the site. Social media platforms empower their owners to persuade and polarize, but this power is constrained by which users choose to remain on the platform.