The 5 Events That Have Caused People To Leave Twitter

Over the last few days, Twitter has implemented a limit to how many Tweets users can see per day. While it’s being framed as a temporary situation, getting people to use your platform less is to put it politely, the opposite of what social platforms traditionally strive for. 

The change has many users claiming this is the final straw and they’re leaving Twitter for good. That’s happened a lot since Elon Musk took over Twitter, so how big a deal is the latest controversy? 

Using the phrase “Leaving Twitter” as a proxy for user intent, here are the 5 times in the last year, the Twitter audience was most upset with the direction of the company.

#1. Elon Musk announced Twitter lifting their ban on Donald Trump

#2. Elon Musk announces a ban on Twitter accounts impersonating other people.

#3. Elon Musk officially takes over Twitter

#4. Elon Musk launches poll asking if he should step down as head of Twitter

#5. Twitter cap on how many Tweets can be viewed per day

Conclusion

Most of the events that had people declaring they were leaving Twitter happened in Q4. This is because the people threatened to leave Twitter have, to a certain extent, already done it.  A January 2023 survey done by COVID States Project, of 25,000 Americans found that the number of people in the U.S. using Twitter has decreased by 9% since Elon Musk took over.  

The survey also found it's primarily Democrats leaving Twitter, with Republicans and Independents largely staying put. 

Why there’s a big spike in people declaring they’re leaving Twitter for the first time in 6 months is because unlike Donald Trump returning or Kathy Griffin getting banned for impersonating Elon Musk, limits being placed on how many Tweets you can see is not a partisan issue. No heavy Twitter users are happy about it. 

It’s a reminder Twitter has not bottomed out on losing users. If the user experience continues to decline, people of all political affiliations will leave the platform.