X cannot survive without hot button topics
Tiktok will do fine with dances, vlogs, vine like memes etc. Insta will do alright with lifestyle posts, food pics, reels etc. YouTube is for long & short video format. X is where people gather to talk about divisive, polarizing hot button topics. Their leader personifies controversy. If Musk doesn't stir the pot then risk of X becoming irrelevant increases. Facebook used to be in similar spot but then demographics changed, conversations became very one sided and it's on edge of irrelevancy.
It makes sense. Love or hate it, all other social media platforms will silence one side of every single debate you could think of. X is the last place where enraged debates can actually happen out in the open. Leaning into that would be a wise move.
Unless enraged user more likely to buy Twitter sub or buy more sht from advertisers. All that ragebait traffic is waste compute resource without generating revenue. Angry people is unlikely want to spend $$ but rather wants to continue to troll and sht post. I could see an alternative monetization strategy besides sub or ad to capitalize on ragebait. Perhaps allow people to spend money to down vote other or add derogatory name tag to user they hate. Twitter can also play both sides, by offering option to remove down vote/degrading tag. Micro transaction the whole internet trolling workflow. Maybe for premium user, they can spend money to shadow ban some one for 10 minutes. I can see big $$$ if capitalize correctly
D
Why is Facebook still surviving if it was in a similar spot
It's surviving mostly on back of legacy accounts. Gen Z and millennials are among least active cohorts on Facebook and there are numerous articles on internal struggles to attract younger crowd. Rate of MAUs has slowed down significantly. If Facebook cannot replace older cohort with younger cohort, then likely scenario is slow bleed out. Thankfully Zuck had foresight to acquire Insta