
Use of X's Community Notes has plummeted in 2025, data shows
Submissions to X's Community Notes, which add user-generated context and corrections to the platform's posts, have cratered this year, according to an NBC News analysis of X data. Fewer submissions has led to fewer notes getting displayed. And the number of notes isn't the only issue: In May, technical glitches led to the disappearance of notes from the main X site, which X acknowledged in a post.
Musk, who once routinely touted the feature, now rarely mentions it.
The system saw a peak of nearly 120,000 user-created notes in January. But the monthly counts have been cut in half since then, with fewer than 60,000 in May. Only a small percentage of notes created are displayed on the site, and displayed notes have declined by similar proportions, according to the analysis. Worldwide, traffic to X has ticked down since January from about 4.7 billion visits to 4.4 billion in May, according to estimates provided to NBC News from the analytics company Similarweb, though the rate of decline in Community Notes submissions is sharper than the rate of traffic decline.
The drop in Community Notes submissions began in February, the same month Musk said without evidence that the system was being gamed by foreign governments and needed to be fixed.

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Daily Mail
31 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Musk's U-turn on Trump: 'Credit where credit is due'
Published: | Elon Musk took to his X account to talk about President Donald Trump but, in a surprising twist, he was there to praise him instead of criticize him. He made his complimentary comment after re-tweeting Trump's update on peace talks between Israel and Gaza including a 60-day ceasefire deal. 'Credit where credit is due. @realDonaldTrump has successfully resolved several serious conflicts around the world,' the world's richest man wrote. It was a remarkable change in tone considering the two men have spent the month sniping at each other on social media, each trying to out top the other with threats and insults. The Tesla CEO has come out publicly against Trump's signature spending and tax 'big, beautiful bill' that is snaking its way through the House and Senate this week. He slammed the bill over its cuts to electronic vehicle subsidies and says it increases the country's deficit. After Musk's public condemnation of the legislation, Trump even indicated he was open to the idea of deporting the Tesla founder, who was born in South Africa and is a naturalized American. The president also threatened to turn Musk's DOGE agency against him, telling the Daily Mail that he might have the agency 'eat Elon' - which likely meant Trump was threatening to cancel Musk's billions in government contracts. The simmering tensions between the two men have boiled over in the past week as Musk railed against Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' and Trump snapped back. It was a throw back to their breakup last month, which was public and messy. Their long alliance appears to be over but Musk, who said he was leaving DOGE to concentrate on his private businesses, appears to be making a return to politics. Musk spent almost $300 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election. And now he's threatening to start a new political party. In response, Trump escalated matters, saying he is open to deporting Musk and adding that additional threat: turning DOGE - the agency Musk founded - against him. 'I don't know. We'll have to take a look,' the president told Daily Mail on Tuesday when asked about deporting Musk. 'We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,' Trump added. Musk responded on X, writing: 'So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.' Their feud, which had quieted down, reignited after the Tesla founder spent much of the weekend railing against Trump's signature bill, complaining about its cuts to electronic vehicle subsidies and showing that it increases the country's deficit. The Senate, however, ultimately approved the 'big, beautiful bill' on Tuesday. It now faces another vote in the House. Trump shrugged off Musk's criticism and warned the Tesla founder has more to lose than EV subsidies that help support his car business. 'Elon is not getting his mandate,' Trump said Tuesday. 'He's not going to get his mandate and he better be careful. He might not get anything else.' Trump also appeared to regret his Tesla purchase, which he made earlier this year, paying cash. He turned the South Lawn into a Tesla showroom in a nod to his relationship with the world's richest man. 'Not everybody wants an electric car. I don't want an electric car,' Trump said. At the time, Musk was the head of the Department of Government Efficiency and his auto dealerships became the target of protests due to his sweeping cost-cutting. Musk was a top contributor to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, spending millions to help the president win a second term. But their relationship went South after Musk left the government to return to the private sector. They sparred on social media after Musk amped up his criticism of the Big, Beautiful Bill. But Trump made it clear that Musk knew the subsidies for electronic cars was not an option from the start. And he said Musk may have to go back to his homeland of South Africa. 'Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly endorsed me for president, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate,' Trump wrote on Truth Social early Tuesday. Musk, in response, threatened to start a new political party and target Republicans who ultimately vote for the president's package. 'If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,' he wrote on X. 'Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.' Musk, the world's richest man, gave nearly $300 million to Republican candidates last year. Now he may leverage that seismic war chest among the very GOPers he once aided, writing he would work to dislodge GOP incumbents in primaries 'if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.'


Spectator
39 minutes ago
- Spectator
The new right is splintering
When Elon Musk tweeted his vision for an 'America Party', he ignited a firestorm of hope and scepticism. The idea was inspired by his anger for Donald Trump's $5 trillion spending bill. In the UK, Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe, formerly figures in Reform, have splintered away from Britain's populist party over splits with Nigel Farage. Musk, Habib and Lowe are all disruptors united by disdain for broken systems, and all face harsh electoral realities. In the US, a hypothetical Musk-led party could split the Republican vote, potentially handing Democrats victories. Habib and Lowe could dilute the populist vote in the UK, most of which is currently with Reform. Musk's flirtation with a new political movement stems from his clash with Trump over fiscal policy. Musk's platform – slashing deficits, deregulating business and boosting high-skilled immigration – appeals to tech-savvy moderates and disillusioned independents. On X, Musk has framed himself as a voice for the pragmatic middle, critiquing both parties' extremes. But his vision lacks the cultural red meat – 'America First' border control or anti-woke rhetoric – that fuels Trump's MAGA base. Musk's $250 million investment in America PAC for Trump's 2024 campaign shows his financial clout, but he would struggle to go it alone. The US electoral landscape is unforgiving to new parties. In 1992, Ross Perot's Reform party won 19 per cent of the vote but zero electoral votes, a cautionary tale for any Musk-led venture. State-by-state ballot access laws, such as California's requirement of roughly 131,000 signatures, would also pose logistical hurdles. Musk's wealth – estimated at $400 billion in 2025 – could fund signature drives and ad campaigns, but building a national infrastructure by 2026 is daunting. Republican strategists have suggested that Musk could reshape the party from within, using his America PAC influence and X's narrative-shaping power, rather than risk starting a third party and failing. Others have warned that his centrist pitch – pro-immigration, pro-tech – alienates voters demanding border security and cultural conservatism. Polls, while unconfirmed for 2025, suggest Republicans view third-party efforts sceptically. Across the Atlantic, Habib and Lowe embody a parallel populist surge. Habib has launched a new political party, Advance UK, which he says stands for a 'proud' and 'independent' United Kingdom, where 'the political views you hold won't land you in jail'. It is billed as an alternative to Reform. Lowe, meanwhile, has just launched Restore Britain, a 'movement' that will pressure political parties to 'slash immigration, protect British culture, restore Christian principles, carpet-bomb the cancer of wokery'. The UK's first-past-the-post system is brutal – Reform's 14 per cent in 2024 yielded just five MPs – and so a fragmented populist vote could split the right and gift Labour seats. Populism in the US and UK shares politics but fights different battles. Musk decries bureaucratic bloat and unfulfilled 2016 promises, while Habib and Lowe target Labour's cultural shifts and attack Farage personally. Musk's X is the transatlantic wildcard, shaping narratives but fuelling polarisation. Reports earlier this year suggested Musk was thinking about making a significant investment in UK politics. In the US, his $250 million America PAC war chest (and X's reach) give him leverage, but Republican loyalties and the Electoral College limit third-party impact. Disruption without cohesion breeds division. The US and the UK need fresh ideas, but splitting conservative votes could empower the elites they oppose. The lesson is clear: conservatives must channel their zeal to reform existing parties from within. To do otherwise risks electoral failure.


New Statesman
an hour ago
- New Statesman
Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax bill is a big, beautiful opportunity for the Democrats
Photo by Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump hawks legislation like he promotes hotels: with garish simplicity. The 'big, beautiful bill' is the president's moniker for a behemoth Republican wish-list stumbling its way through Congress. I counted some 242 individual measures, including everything from a new $100 fee slapped on asylum seekers and cuts to solar energy to $300m for police to guard Trump's private residences and $28bn to build warships. The sheer number of changes means few details will penetrate the public consciousness. But the general thrust is that the tax cuts from 2017 will be made permanent and military spending will rise, while federal money to pay for poor people's healthcare under Medicaid will shrink. Most of that is to be funded by borrowing: Trump's signature bill will jack up America's debt by $3.1trn dollars. What happened to the president's promise to cut spending? It was a mirage, a plaything for his former new best friend, Elon Musk. Promises of cost-cutting served as a Trojan horse to decimate institutions that repelled the Maga mind, such as foreign aid and the Department of Justice. Musk was packed off back to Silicon Valley in a flurry of angry tweets, and has now promised to create a new 'America Party' if this bill passes. On a veranda at a Maga house party in May, I asked one Doge agent about Musk's exile. Picture an urbane 23-year-old with a floppy fringe parted into curtains. He spoke in vocal fry, like Kim Kardashian, and puffed on rollies as rats fought and screeched in the dank garden beneath us. His new role was to ensure Doge's efficiencies outlasted Musk's sojourn in Washington. He told me that some of his colleagues want to 'change the memetic structure of government, others want to do cost-cutting – you need one to get the other'. This now looks quixotic. Juicing the military and handing a blank cheque to Trump's masked migrant hunters reorders the functions of the state; it does not shrink the state itself. Instead of reining in the debt, Trump's revealed preferences are to rearm the military, gut environmental protections, make the rich richer and doggedly pursue mass deportations. And yet this is set to be passed by a Congress with an (albeit shrinking) cohort of fiscal hawks with the power to vote it down. Trump has cowed Republicans into quiet obedience over the past six months. He scares rebellious members of Congress by threatening to field Republican challengers at the next election. His promiscuous splurge of executive orders was a power grab at the expense of the lawmakers scuttling through corridors a mile down Constitution Avenue. The movie that is Trump's second term has been directed from the West Wing. His hoarding of attention means that without the high drama of impeachment, which animated the Capitol during his first term, Congress often drifts free from public consciousness. One poll suggested only 8 per cent of those surveyed knew this bill would hit Medicaid, for instance. Neither is the rising deficit likely to cause consternation around the country. Debt cannot outshine the things it pays for. It's an abstraction which will only become real to voters once a financial crisis hits. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Remember that Trump rose to fame on a pile of debt. Whether as tycoon or politician, he has never taken fiscal prudence to heart. He borrowed to build slot-machines for punters in New Jersey in the 1990s. Now he is borrowing to deport millions of undocumented migrants, probably with a similar aim to thrill. Politics is now entertainment, a contest for eyeballs. Fox News has replaced spinning cherries. This bill means tax cuts for the rich and more expensive hospital trips for the poor. Small victories for the working class – such as axing taxes on tips and overtime – are dwarfed by the upward transfer to the wealthy. While anger over national debt is a niche position, anger over rising inequality isn't. Trump's rhetoric of economic populism is contrived, fake and opportunistic. All of which enables the left to shout that Trump is taking from the poor to give to the wealthy. The Senate voted on Trump's bill the weekend after the socialist Zohran Mamdani left the party's old guard flailing and won the Democratic nomination for the New York mayoral race. Mamdani, 33, promised free buses, rent freezes and state-owned supermarkets. He wants to pay for his plan through levies on the city's plutocrats. The fact that he went from zero per cent in the polls to beating the former governor Andrew Cuomo by nearly ten points in the first round reveals a hungry appetite for left populism. As woke wanes, a new focus on economics might create a political opening for the Democrats. Mamdani must still beat the incumbent Eric Adams, around whom distressed Wall Street bankers are anxiously coalescing. This fight won't be won in the dusty halls of Congress. The Democrats' leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, has so far not endorsed Mamdani. Congressional Democrats have stuck to painting Trump as a tyrant. Put veracity to one side for a moment: this is a tactic that is unlikely to persuade those who were told Trump was an autocrat for a decade and still voted for him. But Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' is ripe to be exposed for its hypocrisy, if only the Democrats can persuade voters of its ugliness. [See also: Is Thomas Skinner the future of the right?] Related