President Biden bypassed traditional media in making his stunning announcement that he won’t be on the 2024 ticket, instead posting a letter on X. Elon Musk immediately took a victory lap.
“White House aides learned Biden was dropped out by reading X,” tweeted the billionaire social network owner. In a series of further posts in the hours after Biden’s announcement, Musk stressed the social network’s role as a direct channel to convey world events more nimbly than cable news and news sites.
The digital delivery of Biden’s historic decision, which was simultaneously posted on Instagram, underscores how social media has reshaped the presidential bully pulpit, becoming the chief news vector for American voters in the most chaotic election cycle of the modern era.
X, which has struggled since the world’s richest man bought it in October 2022, has reemerged as a primary source for an American public hungry for swift news updates — especially in the last tumultuous eight days, which included the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, a groundswell of prominent Democrats calling for Biden to drop out of the race, and a pageant-like Republican National Convention where Trump’s nomination was secured.
In the almost 21 months since the Tesla CEO took over X, he has introduced changes to the platform that have effectively made it more difficult to separate fact from fiction online. Musk personally endorsed Trump in the hours after the shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, raising questions about the neutrality of the platform as a source for news. Even though X had added custom icons for MAGA adherents to display their support of Trump during the Republican National Convention, the network was essential for Biden in seeking to get the word out on social media.
“The last week has solidified the dominant role social media has for political communications and breaking news,” said Katie Harbath, a former Facebook public policy director who is now chief global affairs officer at Duco Experts, a tech consulting firm. “It comes with costs but it is the most efficient way to get news to the most number of people as fast as possible.”
Biden was hardly alone in prioritizing social media to share news in recent days. Trump gave his first public response to his assassination attempt on his right-wing platform, Truth Social, where he also announced his choice of Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate.
Biden’s missive found a large audience online, amassing more than 180 million views and more than 700,000 likes in the first two hours it was online. His Instagram post gained over 1.1 million “likes,” and simultaneously posts on other Meta-owned social networks saw high engagement.
