![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1653-550x194.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nI did, in error, post a Tweet on Sunday. I thought I was sending it to BlueSky, but the two look remarkably similar on a browser, and I made a mistake. Once I realised the mistake I decided to see what would happen, having then posted the same material on BlueSky.<\/p>\n
The results surprised me, not least because I had not used Twitter for so long.<\/p>\n
The Tweet was this:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It has got 13,000 views, and 446 positive engagements, including 281 likes and 150 retweets.<\/p>\n
In contrast, this was the BlueSky data:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_1652-550x860.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
BlueSky does not publish view data. It got 84 likes and 36 shares and 4 comments. That is 134 engagements, just 30 per cent of those on Twitter.<\/p>\n
There is one, very simple, and very obvious conclusion to draw, which is that Twitter is still a very powerful platform for sharing data.<\/p>\n
Whilst I have lost approximately 20,000 followers on Twitter since beginning of the year, when many people left that platform in protest at what Musk was doing, but the rate of decline over the last three months has been very small indeed. It has also become very apparent that the political commentariat has not left that site, or moved to other platforms, and that the vast majority of journalists and commentators, even commentators on the left, maintain their presence there. Owen Jones and Jeremy Corbyn and Dawn Butler are there, for example.<\/p>\n
I am now torn. My position on Musk is, as it has always been, one of disgust. But, have I now made my point? And since Musk is not making money from Twitter, as far as I know, is there any point in maintaining a protest from which I am obtaining no advantage, but which is excluding me from a very large audience for the type of comment I like to produce?<\/p>\n
I have not made up my mind as yet, but I am the only person in the team here who even vaguely thinks that I should now maintain the Twitter boycott. The others think that moment has passed, that Twitter has not gone away, and there is no point in continuing to deny it relevance, and the opportunity that it provides to share information.<\/p>\n
Your comments on this are welcome but please make sure they add value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"