{"id":12050,"date":"2026-01-15T16:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=12050"},"modified":"2026-01-22T16:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T15:23:21","slug":"regardless-of-its-growth-x-is-not-the-primary-information-platform-in-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/regardless-of-its-growth-x-is-not-the-primary-information-platform-in-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"REGARDLESS OF ITS GROWTH, X IS NOT THE PRIMARY INFORMATION PLATFORM IN THE EU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Original article\u00a0<\/a>(in Albanian) was published on 14\/01\/2026; Author:\u00a0Barbara Halla<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Albanian social media, there is<\/a> a claim that X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has become \u201cthe number one news source in every EU country<\/em>.\u201d This narrative has been widely shared on social networks in Albania and beyond, following a series of posts by the platform\u2019s owner, Elon Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On December 7, 2025, Elon Musk published<\/a> on his platform, stating that \u201cX is experiencing record downloads in many European countries.\u201d He also claimed<\/a> that X has become the most-read news platform across the European Union. These statements were made public by Musk following a fine imposed<\/a> on his company by the European Commission for various breaches of digital information laws in EU countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Musk\u2019s statements are not supported by verifiable statistical data. The claim that X is Europe\u2019s number one news source was shared by the Tesla Owners Silicon account, but it does not point to any report or concrete data explaining the origin of these numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Euronews, which refuted<\/a> Musk\u2019s claims, in some EU countries, X temporarily ranked at the top of the \u201cNews\u201d category in app stores, particularly in the App Store. This limited ranking, applying to only one operating platform, does not reflect the platform\u2019s actual use as a primary source of information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Analyzing overall download rankings, X is not the most used app in most major EU countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. In many cases, it does not even make the top ten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from third-party sources and Google Play indicate that there has been no sudden or \u201crecord\u201d surge in X downloads across Europe. Instead, other platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube dominate the charts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long-term studies further disprove this claim. The 2025 Reuters Institute<\/a> Digital News Report shows that the European audience, while increasingly active on social media, still relies more on traditional media than on social platforms like X. Among social networks used for news, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are clearly the preferred choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assertion that all 27 EU countries \u201cdepend on X more than any other media\u201d is not backed by any credible evidence. It originates from a selective interpretation of app rankings and the tense political context between Elon Musk and European institutions, rather than the actual patterns of news consumption in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article\u00a0(in Albanian) was published on 14\/01\/2026; Author:\u00a0Barbara Halla On Albanian social media, there is a claim that X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has become \u201cthe number one news source in every EU country.\u201d This narrative has been widely shared on social networks in Albania and beyond, following a series of posts by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":12055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[164,11,698,579,558],"class_list":["post-12050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-elon-musk","tag-eu","tag-european-commission","tag-twitter","tag-x"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12056,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12050\/revisions\/12056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}