Twitter

Prominent accounts on Twitter are more likely than those on alternative social media sites to link to print publications, TV and wire services.

One-in-five federal, state and local candidate tweets in 2022 have mentioned race, abortion, education or the economy.

Here are five facts about political content on Twitter, such as the content and nature of these posts.

The social media sites that journalists use most frequently for their jobs differ from those that the public turns to for news.  

Roughly one-quarter of American adults use Twitter. And when they share their views on the site, quite often they are doing so about politics and political issues.

73% of U.S. adult Twitter users include identifiable text in their profile, but 27% include no text apart from the display and username fields.

23% of U.S. adults say they use Twitter. The share of Americans who use the platform has remained consistent over the past several years.

Roughly half of American adults who use Twitter (49%) post fewer than five tweets per month; 59% of infrequent tweeters are ages 30 to 49.

Here is how the average adult Twitter user in the U.S. tweeted about the news in 2021, as well as how these patterns have changed since 2015.

Fully 70% of U.S. adult Twitter news consumers say they have used Twitter to follow live news events, up from 59% who said this in 2015.