Trump's victory ignites the next great digital divide
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Left-leaning apps, news websites and social networks are experiencing a spike in engagement following President-elect Trump's election win, further dividing the internet along political lines.
Why it matters: It's not unusual for resistance media to rise in response to contentious elections. But the internet itself is becoming more politically divided than ever, driving Americans further into echo chambers.
Driving the news: Bluesky, an alternative to Elon Musk's X, saw downloads rise by 430% during election week, according to Sensor Tower.
- Usage of the Bluesky app in the U.S. grew by 519% in the weeks after the election, compared to the first 10 months of the year, per SimilarWeb.
- The social network's growth is linked to users "either leaving X or investing more time in exploring a promising alternative," SimilarWeb's editor of insights news and research, David Carr, noted.
Between the lines: Lefty, a dating app for progressives, has experienced an unprecedented 453% surge in downloads in the two weeks since the election, founder and CEO Alex Felipelli told Axios.
- "The surge in downloads since the recent Trump victory underscores a profound shift among progressives who are seeking like-minded partners in a deeply polarized political climate," he said.
Zoom in: New data from CivicScience, a polling firm, found that people who voted for Vice President Harris are more active than Trump voters on Threads, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok, while Trump voters are much much more likely to be active on X.
- Certain streaming apps, such as Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video, are also much more popular among Harris voters than Trump voters.
State of play: Some progressive news outlets are leaning even heavier into resistance coverage — a business move that proved effective in 2016.
- Slate said daily subscription sign-ups were seven times higher than normal on the day after the election.
- The Guardian raised $2.4 million in two days after the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post pulled their Harris endorsements at the last minute.
Zoom out: Conservatives tried to build their own alternate internet ecosystem toward the end of the Trump administration, particularly after Jan. 6, when most of the internet's biggest platforms de-platformed then-President Trump.
- Musk bought X. Peter Thiel and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance invested in Rumble, a YouTube alternative for conservatives, which has since gone public. President-elect Trump launched Truth Social, which is now public.
- Thiel backed the creation of The Right Stuff, a conservative dating app that now has 3.4 million followers on TikTok.
- Conservatives launched their own internet hosting company, RightForge, a new "Magacoin" cryptocurrency, and began investing in their own entertainment companies and streaming services.
The big picture: For platforms and media outlets looking to become more neutral, playing to everyone's interests may present business challenges.
- CNN's election night ratings fell below MSNBC's for the first time this year amid a broader pivot to more centric coverage.
- Ratings for MSNBC's "Morning Joe" plummeted after co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski told viewers they visited Trump. The show drew just 680,000 viewers on Tuesday, down from an average of more than 1 million.
- The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times both saw subscribers flee in response to orders from their owners Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong to axe Harris endorsements.
What's next: All signs point to online tribalism increasing as the barrier to entry for new digital products lowers, challenging mainstream institutions.
