☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: CEO of X steps down; platform’s AI chatbot posts antisemitic messages
- In other news: NYT sparks controversy with article about Mamdani’s racial identity
- Looking ahead: Trump Media announces deal to stream Newsmax
- Chart of the week: Majority of U.S. teens visit YouTube, TikTok at least daily
🔥 Featured story
This week, there were multiple news stories surrounding the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), a site where 12% of Americans say they regularly get news. On Wednesday, CEO Linda Yaccarino announced that she is stepping down after two years in the position. Yaccarino’s announcement came days after X’s AI-powered chatbot, Grok, posted antisemitic messages in responses to some users.
Republicans and Democrats differ in their views of X, according to a 2025 Pew Research Center survey. Republicans on X are much more likely to say their experience on the site these days is mostly positive (51%) than mostly negative (11%). Democratic X users’ views are flipped: 40% say it’s a mostly negative experience, compared with 20% who say it is mostly positive.
The prevailing view among Democrats on X (expressed by 55%) is that the site tends to support the views of conservatives over liberals, while just 3% say it supports liberal views over conservative ones. Meanwhile, Republicans largely say that X supports both kinds of views equally (56%).
📌 In other news
- The New York Times sparks controversy over use of hacked documents in article on mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s racial identity
- X’s Global Government Affairs account says Indian government ordered it to block more than 2,000 accounts, including Reuters
- Fortune and Axios move toward incorporating AI into their journalism
- Publishers file EU antitrust complaint over Google’s AI-generated summaries
- YouTube to tighten policy on creators’ revenue from AI-generated and “inauthentic” content
- L.A. Taco emerges as key news source covering immigration crackdown
- New NYT podcast brings writers in front of the camera
- CNN relaunches free ad-supported streaming channel
📅 Looking ahead
Trump Media and Technology Group announced a deal this week to put Newsmax content on its streaming platform, Truth+. President Donald Trump is the largest shareholder in Trump Media, which also owns the social media platform Truth Social.
Four-in-ten U.S. adults have heard of Newsmax, and 8% say they regularly get news there, according to a recent Center survey that asked Americans about 30 major news sources. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say they regularly get news from Newsmax (15% vs. 1%) and to say they generally trust Newsmax as a source of news (21% vs. 2%). Older Americans are also more likely than young adults to regularly get news from Newsmax and to trust it.
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart comes from an analysis on teens and social media based on a 2024 survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17. Around three-quarters of teens (73%) report using YouTube daily, while 57% say they use TikTok at least once a day. And about half visit Instagram (50%) and Snapchat (48%) daily.
In all four cases, at least one-in-ten teens use each app or site “almost constantly.”
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang, Emily Tomasik, Joanne Haner and Mary Randolph. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Mia Hennen.
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