Pew Research published a study earlier this month on the links shared by prominent accounts on Twitter compared to links shared on alternative social media platforms.
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C.
It is important to note that data collected back in June 2022 was used in the study. This was prior to Elon Musk buying Twitter, eliminating half of the staff, firing toxic far-left activists, and exposing the extreme censorship against conservatives on the platform.
Much has changed since then, including Twitter reinstating The Gateway Pundit account.
The Pew study found that in June of last year, almost all of the links shared on Twitter were to mainstream media outlets. Of course, that was because Twitter shadow-banned and censored links to alternative media outlets. Most every link to The Gateway Pundit last year was not allowed on the platform. Twitter engineers “taught” users not to link to opposing views and to only promote approved mainstream media outlets.
The Pew study also found this was not the case on alternative platforms that were not being censored like BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Rumble, Telegram, and Truth Social.
On these alternative platforms, The Gateway Pundit was the third most linked news outlet behind Bitchute and YouTube.
This is a remarkable study. It shows when The Gateway Pundit is NOT censored or completely shut down our website is one of the most prominent and trusted news sites in the country.
This explains why Twitter (still through algorithms), Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Wikipedia, Google, and Instagram, continue to censor our website.
From the Pew Study.
Established social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter differ in key ways from alternative social media sites such as Parler and Truth Social, a recent Pew Research Center study found. And these differences extend to the kinds of links that are shared by prominent accounts on each type of social media site, according to a new Center analysis.
Prominent accounts on Twitter are far more likely than those on alternative social media sites to link to news media outlets such as print publications, television and wire services. In fact, roughly two-thirds (66%) of all links shared by prominent Twitter accounts in June 2022 directed readers to such news media outlets, compared with only 5% of the links shared by prominent accounts on seven alternative social media sites studied by the Center: BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Rumble, Telegram and Truth Social. (Note: This analysis predates the completion of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter.)
So where do prominent accounts on alternative social media sites direct their audiences, if not to news media? In many cases, the answer is to other social media sites.
Some 45% of all links shared by prominent accounts on these sites went to different social media brands, whether to more established sites such as YouTube or Twitter (24%) or to various alternative sites such as BitChute or Gab (21%).
Prominent accounts on both Twitter and the seven alternative social media sites studied posted a similar share of links (around one-in-five) to digital-only outlets of various kinds.
The differences between links shared on Twitter and those shared on alternative social media sites are also pronounced when looking at the most common individual sites shared by prominent accounts.
All 10 most-shared sites by prominent accounts on Twitter in June 2022 were the online sites of news media organizations such as The Washington Post, Reuters or The New York Times. By contrast, the 10 most-shared sites by prominent alternative social media accounts primarily went to other social media, as well as to two digital-only outlets: The Gateway Pundit and Rebel News.
While these differences in linking practices between more established and alternative social media sites are notable, they may not come as a surprise to regular visitors of the alternative social media universe. In the Center’s recent study, 52% of those who regularly get news on alternative social media sites say that they either extremely or fairly often see news on these sites that they would not have seen elsewhere.
