Elon Musk Boasts Higher Traffic on X Amid EU Probe on Hate Speech, Disinformation

As more advertisers leave the platform, Elon Musk showed off an increase in X's (formerly Twitter) traffic.

The billionaire shared a post of reports stating that the social media surged 22.3% on-site traffic on a year-to-year basis or 75 million visits, "its current peak in popularity" in the past 18 months.

Musk shared the post as the European Union launched investigations on the site for violating regulations on illegal content, disinformation, transparency, and "deceptive" design practices.

EU Starts Formal Probe on Elon Musk's X

The Union has opened its "formal infringement" against X weeks after the site was asked to provide evidence of compliance in eliminating hate speech, racism, and disinformation on the platform.

EU regulators earlier launched a preliminary inquiry on the platform following the surge of "terrorist and violent content and hate speech" on X since the conflict in Gaza started.

Musk himself has shared antisemitic posts claiming Jewish people "have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites." Musk proclaimed the post as "the actual truth."

The investigation marks the first time the EU acted on behalf of the Digital Services Act since it was implemented in August.

In response, X said it "remains committed" to complying with the Act and is "cooperating with the regulatory process."

Several advertisers have already promised to never return to the platform under Musk's leadership after the billionaire hurled profanities at companies that joined the exodus.

User Traffic on X

The billionaire has been regularly sharing and posting claims that the site experienced further growth since he took over the platform in October 2022.

Musk himself posted a graph chart on Dec. 15, Friday, of X having more organic traffic than Instagram for both mobile and web versions from December 2022 to 2023.

However, contrary to Musk's claims, estimated site traffic from third-party sources indicates that the site has been experiencing a downtrend since Musk acquired the platform.

Market intelligence firm Similarweb reported that X's global traffic for both web (-14%) and Android (-14.8%) was down on a year-to-year basis as of September 2023.

Recent system outages and the lack of platform innovations on X are among the main reasons for former Twitter users migrating to other social media.