A new survey shows that Americans trust Amazon and TikTok more than Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) and the U.S. government. The survey, conducted by All About Cookies, found that X ranked last among major social media platforms in terms of trust, following a series of controversial decisions since Musk took over.
According to the May survey, Amazon led the way with 70% of respondents expressing trust in the company. Google and Netflix followed closely behind with 65% and 64% of people trusting them, respectively. In contrast, TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, received the trust of only 29% of respondents. Despite concerns from U.S. officials about ByteDance possibly sharing user data with the Chinese government, TikTok still ranked higher than X.
X, however, lagged significantly, with only 28% of respondents trusting the platform. This placed it even lower than the U.S. government, which also scored 28% in the survey. Notably, 43% of people expressed distrust in the government, while 44% said they did not trust X at all. The survey results suggest that X has lost credibility with the public, which may be attributed to major changes Musk has made since acquiring Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion.
Following the acquisition, Musk made significant cuts to X’s workforce, including layoffs in the trust and safety team. The team, initially made up of around 230 employees, was reduced to about 20. Yoel Roth, who was in charge of trust and safety, resigned shortly after Musk took control of the company. Since then, X has faced criticism over its handling of misinformation, particularly after Musk implemented Community Notes as a solution. However, reports have shown that fact-checks on false posts can take hours, or even days, to appear.
Musk has also come under fire for some of his own posts. In one case, he was criticized for amplifying an antisemitic comment on X. He later apologized, saying he was “naive” about the issue. More recently, Musk posted a controversial joke about President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, which raised concerns from the U.S. Secret Service.
X has also faced regulatory scrutiny in other countries. In Brazil, the platform was banned for months due to its handling of harmful content. Eventually, Musk’s platform agreed to follow stricter content moderation rules imposed by the country’s Supreme Court. Despite these efforts, X continues to face challenges, and public trust remains low.
