When social media gets stuck between a rock and hard news

IT MIGHT be 2024, but the fiefdom of online political discourse is looking mighty Shakespearean. Stage right, you have social media platform X raving like a 17th-century Habsburg prince. Stage left, its rival Threads shuffles about moaning, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” Neither platform appears fit for purpose as the US sees a presidential election run-up marked by bloodshed.

X leaned further rightwards last week, as its owner Elon Musk publicly endorsed presidential candidate Donald Trump on the platform, after the latter was injured in a shooting over the weekend. Partisan ownership isn’t automatically problematic for an outfit, but since X tends to be an unfettered conduit for Musk’s whims, the site will appeal even less to those on the left.

While Musk has clearly picked a side, Meta’s Threads would like to keep both sides from grappling too much with each other. This year, Threads and its sister app Instagram began hiding political posts from accounts that users don’t already follow by default, lowering the chances of a digital bust-up between opposing echo chambers.