Most UK users say the platform gives too much freedom to post harmful and offensive content
Elon Musk has come in for a great deal of criticism in the UK for his response to the recent riots. X, alongside other social media platforms, has been blamed for helping to spread misinformation about the identity of the Southport murderer that helped fan the flames of disorder.
Unlike other social media firm owners, however, Musk declared publicly that the riots meant that a “civil war [in the UK] is inevitable”, criticised Keir Starmer over accusations of two-tier policing, and shared fake news regarding supposed “emergency detainment camps” for far-right rioters.
Now a new YouGov survey (conducted on 14-15 August) finds that almost four times as many Britons have a negative view of Musk (64%) as a positive one (17%).
The public’s opinion of Musk is not, however, noticeably different as a result of the recent riots. The national results of this survey are largely the same as one conducted during the height of the riots (on 7-8 August), and a year previously in July 2023.
They do, however, represent a significant decline since we first started asking in 2022, when Musk was first positioning himself to purchase the platform. While about the same number of Britons had a positive view of Musk then (23%) as do now, far fewer people actively disliked him (40%).
Musk is also unpopular among users of his platform, even the most active ones. Most daily X users have a negative opinion of Musk (64%), a figure which matches that among the wider userbase.
He does have slightly more fans among the X userbase compared to the wider population, however, with 22% of all X users and 27% of those who use the platform daily saying they have a favourable view of its CEO.
Attitudes towards X are becoming increasingly negative
While the attitudes of the wider public towards the X platform itself largely mirror those towards Musk, those who use the service are far more positive. Half of daily X users say they have a favourable view of the social media network (51%), although this drops to 38% when including all who ever use the service.
Nevertheless, August’s results still represent the worst ratings for the platform in the two years since Musk first declared his interest in taking over. Four in ten of those who use X daily have a negative view of the platform in our most recent survey (42%), rising to 51% of those who ever use it.
There is likewise generally agreement that Musk’s takeover of the social media network in 2022 has been bad for the platform. Almost half of Britons say so (49%), a figure that is even higher among the X userbase (57%), including 60% of daily users.
X allows people too much freedom to post harmful and offensive content, say users
The aftermath of the rioting, which has seen several people arrested for writing or even sharing posts inciting disorder, has prompted debate about the limits of free speech on social media.
Instances of racial slurs reportedly “soared” after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, and the platform has come in for criticism for “its failure to remove posts containing extreme hate speech”.
Our study finds that there is a widespread belief that there is too much freedom to post on offensive or harmful content on X. This is by far the most widely held opinion on the matter, with approaching half of the public saying so (48%), including 58% of X users and 62% of daily users.
By contrast, only 12% think X gets the balance between freedom and moderation about right, and just 5% think X is too draconian in its moderation of content.
Users themselves are more likely than the wider public to think the balance is about right (20%, including 24% of daily users), while still only 6-7% think X is too strict.
That X is too lax with its content policies is the stance held by the majority of Labour and Lib Dem voters (67%), and a plurality of Tories (48%), but just 18% of Reform UK voters. The latter group are most likely to think X instead gets the balance about right (33%); only 9% think X is too strict.
The platform (still not) formerly known as Twitter
Perhaps one of the biggest changes that Elon Musk made to his social media company since purchasing it has been to change its name, in July 2023. Nevertheless, the legacy of Twitter still prevails: seven in ten Britons say they still generally refer to the platform as ‘Twitter’ (70%), a figure which rises to 80% among users. A mere 4-5% of both the wider public and the userbase now primarily call the network ‘X’, while another 12-14% say they use both names at the same time when referring to it.
See the 7-8 August results here and the 14-15 August results here
What do you think of Elon Musk, how X/Twitter is managing user content, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
