Elon Musk takes hit as Europeans ditch X in droves

Europeans are fleeing X en masse, according to a new report from Elon Musk’s social media platform.

The latest figures from X published this week — which it was required to release to comply with the European Union’s flagship tech rulebook, the Digital Services Act — show a sharp decline in the number of users in Europe.

Since August last year, the platform has lost 11 million European users, with the biggest exoduses reported in France (2.7 million), Poland (1.8 million) and Germany (1.3 million).

Today, the platform has about 95 million users in Europe, down from around 105 million last year, representing a 10.5 percent drop in six months. Lithuania and Luxembourg both lost a quarter of their users.

Musk — who has been one of U.S. President Donald Trump's most prominent advisers during the first 100 days of his second term in office — acquired X, then known as Twitter, in 2022. His changes to the platform’s rules, and encouragement of right-wing political movements from the United States to Europe, have sparked criticism about the website’s amplification of disinformation and hate speech.

The city of Paris quit the platform in January, joining a slew of other accounts that have fled since Musk’s takeover, from legendary horror writer Stephen King to Leeds University and media outlets including British newspaper The Guardian.

The European Commission has been investigating whether X adheres to the EU's requirements to act on illegal content and fake news since 2023, and accused the platform of breaking the law last July — though it has yet to hand down a long-awaited punishment.

Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla has also taken a hit in Europe in recent months, with sales falling by more than 50 percent across January and February this year.