---
title: "X testing new feature highlighting agreement"
description: "☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here! In today’s email: 🔥 Featured story X (formerly Twitter) is piloting a new use for its Community Notes feature: flagging posts that generate agreement from users who normally have differing views, Axios is reporting. The end goal is to […]"
date: "2025-06-05"
authors:
  - name: "cstaubin"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/newsletter/the-briefing/x-testing-new-feature-highlighting-agreement/"
---

# X testing new feature highlighting agreement

**☀️ Happy Thursday!** *The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information*.* [**Sign up here!**](https://www.pewresearch.org/sign-up-for-the-briefing/)*

**In today*’*s email:**

- **Featured story:** X tests new feature highlighting posts people agree on

- **In other news:** Washington Post to publish more opinion pieces from outside sources

- **Looking ahead:** Celebrity magazines among four publications shutting down

- **Chart of the week:** Is X good for American democracy? Partisan views have flipped since 2021

🔥 **Featured story**

X (formerly Twitter) is piloting a new use for its Community Notes feature: flagging posts that generate agreement from users who normally have differing views, [Axios is reporting](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/05/x-elon-musk-community-notes). The end goal is to highlight areas of **common ground** and make the site **less polarizing.**

While 55% of X users who are Democrats or lean Democratic think **X tends to support the views of conservatives over liberals,** the prevailing view among Republican and GOP-leaning users is that the **site supports both kinds of views equally** (56%), according to a [recent Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/05/republicans-and-democrats-on-x-differ-over-the-sites-politics-and-their-experiences/).

Democratic users also are much more likely than Republican users to say inaccurate and misleading information (71% vs. 24%) and the tone or civility of discussions (54% vs. 18%) are major problems on X. There were virtually no differences between the parties on these questions in 2021, before Elon Musk purchased the site.

📌 **In other news**

- **Washington Post** to [launch new initiative](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/business/media/washington-post-opinion-ripple.html) to feature more opinion writers from a variety of sources

- **United Healthcare **[files defamation lawsuit](https://www.semafor.com/article/06/04/2025/unitedhealthcare-lawsuit-accuses-guardian-of-trying-to-capitalize-on-ceo-brian-thompsons-killing) against** The Guardian**

- **Trump administration **[sends Congress its plan to restructure VOA](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/us/politics/trump-voice-of-america.html)

- **OAN** Pentagon correspondent says she was [fired after criticizing Pete Hegseth](https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/31/media/gabrielle-cuccia-oan-pentagon-maga-fired-hegseth)

- **Minnesota Star Tribune** [offers buyouts](https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/06/02/star-tribune-offers-employees-buyouts/) to experienced employees

- **Massachusetts public media station** [announces layoffs](https://current.org/2025/06/gbh-layoffs-hit-45-staffers-less-than-a-month-after-world-cuts/)

- A look into **Trump's** [posting behavior on Truth Social](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/06/03/trump-truth-social-twitter/)

- **Oregon bill** [aims to get tech companies to compensate news outlets](https://www.cjr.org/analysis/oregon-journalism-protection-act-big-tech-payback-potential.php) for the use of their reporting

📅 **Looking ahead**

McClatchy Media Company has announced that four magazines it owns – First for Women, In Touch, Life & Style and Closer – will [cease publication in the coming weeks](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/media-magazine-layoffs-life-and-style-in-touch-closer-mcclatchy-1236234252/). A dwindling share of Americans [get news from print publications](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/news-platform-fact-sheet/): Just 4% say they prefer to get their news this way.

Some of these magazines focus largely on celebrities, a topic which many people do not consider to be news at all. **Just 3% of U.S. adults say they think information about celebrities and their lives is definitely news**, according to our [recent exploration of how Americans define news](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2025/05/13/what-is-news/).

📊 **Chart of the week**

This week’s chart comes from a [new analysis of X users](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/05/republicans-and-democrats-on-x-differ-over-the-sites-politics-and-their-experiences/), who were asked if X (formerly Twitter) is mostly good or bad for U.S. democracy. **A majority of Republican X users (58%) now say the platform is mostly good for democracy**, up from 17% in 2021. (Elon Musk purchased the site in 2022.) Meanwhile, Democrats’ views have moved in the opposite direction: **17% of Democrats on X say the platform is good for democracy in 2025**, down from 47% four years ago.

Meanwhile, 53% of Democratic users now say X is mostly *bad *for democracy, up from 28% in 2021. And the share of Republican users who say the platform is mostly bad for democracy has declined dramatically (to 11% in 2025 from 60% in 2021).

![Steep increase in the share of Republican X users who say the platform is good for American democracy, decrease among Democrats since 2021](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/SR_25.06.05_x-users_3.png)

*👋 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 and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Anna Jackson.

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