American political drama inspires Elon Musk’s X moment

The main drama unfolding on social media platform X this time around wasn’t just centered around its billionaire owner. Instead, users were intently listening to the historic presidential debate in late June and President Biden’s address to the nation last week about his decision to drop out of the presidential race.

During that time, X saw a huge surge in interest, reminding people that the site formerly known as Twitter can be a place people turn to in key moments, for better or worse, to see what others are saying and sometimes even say something themselves.

The vibe is back. User Ashley St. Clair seemed to echo the sentiments of many when she wrote, “Why has X become so addictive over the past week? I think I need rehab,” to which Musk responded with a tears of joy emoji.

He has been obsessed with X for the past month, catching the news with his tweets and participating in ways that increase engagement, as he is the user with the most followers, around 200 million.

The deal to acquire Company X for $44 billion in late 2022 and the ensuing turmoil surrounding the company’s management and increasingly controversial stance have made Company X a toxic presence for some and beloved by others.

Even though many advertisers have pulled back, further straining the site’s already shaky finances, Musk is betting that if enough people keep watching the show, big-spending brands will eventually return. “If we grow enough market share there will be nowhere else to advertise,” he tweeted this month.

The past few weeks have shown that Musk has the potential to reclaim his X status in the collective conversation.

“Ride the information dragon!” Musk urged last week, shortly after Biden announced his withdrawal from the race via X and other social media platforms. On that day, downloads of the X mobile app on iPhone and Android mobile devices in the U.S. increased 13% from the previous day, according to market research firm Sensor Tower.

Biden’s post on X had been viewed more than 380 million times by the next day, and some in the Biden campaign reportedly learned of the decision through X. Biden’s actual television address to the nation came days later.

In many ways, Musk is getting his first taste of the euphoria that other media figures enjoyed during the Trump administration, an euphoria that helped grow readership and viewership but ultimately faded.

Musk suggested in May that the company had 300 million daily users, up from the 250 million daily users the company said it had in March.

External data doesn’t paint a much brighter picture: Sensor Tower estimates that the average number of daily users of its mobile app fell about 20% last quarter, compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, when Musk acquired X. And Sensor Tower said that while X’s usage has declined over the past year, its competitors have been growing.

One thing X and Sensor Tower agree on is that there has been renewed excitement surrounding the platform recently.

According to Sensor Tower, the day after the first presidential debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump, average daily time spent on the app in the U.S. increased by 13% from the previous day, far surpassing Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok.

The only site that outperformed X was Meta Platforms’ X-fighter Threads app, which grew by 18%.

In the days that followed, downloads of the X app in the U.S. also surged, up 7% from the day before on July 5. That Friday, ABC News aired an exclusive interview with Biden, who was trying to do damage control after his poor debate performance raised questions about whether he should continue in the race. The following Monday, downloads increased 23% as the online debate over Biden’s mental acuity continued.

Then came the weekend of the assassination attempt on President Trump: After the July 13 shooting, US downloads of X increased by almost 50% in the week compared to the previous week, according to Sensor Tower, and Musk, citing his own internal company metrics, claimed that usage of the platform hit an all-time high the day after the shooting.

Still, Musk has a lot of redemption to make: Recent moves “haven’t translated into enough user growth to offset the overall trend of people leaving the platform,” Sensor Tower analyst Avraham Yousef told me.

That’s the catch for Musk: With just over 100 days until the November election, he has a chance to get users back into the daily X-scrolling habit.

But beyond Biden’s historic news last week, the platform was also filled with salacious content and conspiracy theories that have left some people cringing.

For example, trending topics on Thursday included actress Jennifer Aniston’s name in a comment she made about Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s Republican running mate. Among the latest posts were pornographic tweets that had nothing to do with Aniston, but drew attention because of her name.

Also this week, an unfounded claim that Vance had had sex with a piece of furniture became so widespread on the platform that the Associated Press and Snopes each wrote articles denying the widespread meme. (The AP has since removed the article.) “No, J.D. Vance never said he had sex with a couch cushion,” fact-checking website Snopes wrote on Tuesday.

Despite this, #CouchHumper became a trend on X.

By Friday, Musk wasn’t relying on political turmoil to maintain momentum, but rather was moving toward his next big event: the Paris Olympics.

“Viva France!” he tweeted.

Write to Tim Higgins at tim.higgins@wsj.com.