The EFF is the latest organization to quit X

X’s decline in dating and his ability to drive cars is the topic du jour, with several days of bad PR on Elon Musk’s social media.

Over the weekend, X’s head of marketing, Nikita Bier, and data scientist Nate Silver, formerly of FiveThirtyEight, they argued whether X is still able to send traffic to publishers. This was followed by a report from NiemanLab Wednesday, which said adding links to X posts is bad for dating.

On Thursday, the well-known digital rights group and the non-profit EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) he announced Also, it was leaving X after seeing a decrease in its posts.

After nearly two decades on the platform, EFF is exiting X.

This is not a decision we have made lightly, but it may be too late. 🧵(1/5)

– EFF (@EFF) April 9, 2026

In blog post, EFF media director Kenyatta Thomas said leaving X after almost 20 years on the platform was not “a decision we made lightly,” but explained that the math no longer worked.

In 2018, the EFF’s Twitter posts were viewed between 50 and 100 million per month, he said. By 2024, his 2,500 posts on the platform generated nearly 2 million monthly hits. Last year, EFF’s 1,500 articles received nearly 13 million hits throughout the year.

“To put it bluntly, X’s post today receives less than 3% of the views that one tweet received seven years ago,” Thomas said.

The organization will continue to post on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and elsewhere on social media, noting that its presence on the platform does not guarantee these services.

“We stay because the people on these platforms need to know more. We stay because some of the things we read the most are those who criticize the platform we put on,” said Thomas. “X is no longer where the fight is taking place.” (Wow!)

EFF is one of many organizations to stop X, following other high-profile releases that have included various news publishers such as NPR, PBS images, The Guardian, The worldand othersand many students, celebs, your place governmentsand More information.

Media organizations may have had different reasons for dropping X, but the traffic would have kept them close. For others, like NPR and PBS, the departure was based on what Musk decided to falsely call “government-affiliated media,” a title. stored to independent government spokesmen – such as Russia and China’s propaganda. For others, like Le Monde, it was how Musk got along with Trump.

But it’s easier to take action when you have nothing to lose.

Today, every source of traffic is very important, as publishers face changes in online shopping behavior. The use of AI is increasingkilling traffic for publishers at a time when news sites are seeing declining traffic from search engines and Facebook. This has left many newsrooms struggling due to financial constraints or layoffs.

Even if the newsletter *does* generate a lot of discussion on the platform because I put in a lot of work, the conversion to external traffic is average. Maybe 2-3% of Silver Bulletin news readers instead of ~1%. At 538, ~15% of our traffic came from Twitter!

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 8, 2026

During Bier’s debate with Silver, he criticized newsrooms for misusing X.

Bier he emphasized that news outlets like The New York Times should post in a way that encourages conversation on the X platform, not just use X as news feed to publish a simple headline and link. Silver, however, said that even though he did the work to generate discussion on the platform, it didn’t help him much in terms of traffic to his website.

“Adjusting to people outside of space is very difficult,” Silver he wrote at X. “Maybe 2-3% of the Silver Bulletin’s news readers instead of ~1%.” By comparison, he said Twitter was sending FiveThirtyEight around 15% of its traffic.

These are the Twitter/X accounts with the most engagement so far in 2026. I think I had an idea of ​​how bad it was, but jeez, this is what you get when the universe is broken. pic.twitter.com/zHrS7T0iVD

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 5, 2026

Even some of Silver’s critics showed up accept it and his evaluation of X, which he published in the newspaper. Likewise, X is now targeted by tastemakers, and many of the top accounts in terms of engagement are downgraded. (For example, Silver reported the account of “Catturd,” a known right-wing activist spreading conspiracy theoriessees more action than The New York Times.)

Musk, of course, rejected this analysis, calling Silver’s data “bullshit” in response.

NiemanLab analysis including 200 of the most recent articles from 18 major publishers support Silver’s claims. It found that newsrooms advertising along with X’s records were seeing poor performance – including for future records.

This does not mean that X is taking down their records – the company says he stopped doing that – it can only mean that X is not happening as it used to.