EFF Departs X After Nearly 20 Years of Declining Engagement

The digital rights group cites a 97% drop in impressions since 2018 as the reason for leaving the Elon Musk-owned platform.

Apr. 9, 2026 at 9:26pm by Ben Kaplan

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A highly detailed, 3D macro illustration of a partially obscured and damaged X logo, glowing with neon cyan and magenta lights against a backdrop of digital interference patterns, conceptually representing the decline of the social media platform.The glowing, fractured X logo symbolizes the platform's declining engagement and influence as prominent organizations like the EFF depart the Elon Musk-owned social network.San Francisco Today

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a prominent digital rights organization, has announced it is leaving X (formerly Twitter) after nearly 20 years on the platform. The decision comes as the group has seen a dramatic decline in engagement, with its monthly impressions dropping from 50-100 million in 2018 to just 13 million for the entire year in 2025. EFF's social media manager cited the math no longer working in the organization's favor, with X posts receiving less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago.

Why it matters

EFF's departure is the latest in a series of high-profile exits from X, including various news organizations, academics, celebrities, and local governments. The decline in engagement on the platform has made it less valuable as a traffic driver for publishers, who are already dealing with shifts in online consumer behavior and declining referrals from search engines and social media.

The details

In a blog post, EFF's social media manager Kenyatta Thomas explained that the organization's decision to leave X was not made lightly, but that the numbers simply no longer justified its presence on the platform. EFF's posts on X went from generating 50-100 million impressions per month in 2018 to just 2 million per month by 2024. Last year, the group's 1,500 posts earned roughly 13 million impressions for the entire year.

  • In 2018, EFF's posts to Twitter saw between 50 and 100 million impressions per month.
  • By 2024, its 2,500 posts on the social platform generated around 2 million impressions per month.
  • Last year, EFF's 1,500 posts earned roughly 13 million impressions for the entire year.

The players

EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a prominent digital rights group and nonprofit that has been active on X (formerly Twitter) for nearly 20 years.

Kenyatta Thomas

EFF's social media manager, who announced the organization's decision to leave X in a blog post.

Elon Musk

The owner of X (formerly Twitter), who dismissed an analysis by Nate Silver about the platform's declining engagement as "bullshit."

Nate Silver

A data analyst previously of FiveThirtyEight, who feuded with X's head of product Nikita Bier over the platform's ability to drive traffic to publishers.

Nikita Bier

The head of product at X, who accused newsrooms of using the platform wrong and argued they should be posting in a way to encourage conversation on X's platform.

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What they’re saying

“To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago.”

— Kenyatta Thomas, EFF's social media manager

“The conversion to off-site traffic is very middling. Maybe 2-3% of the readership for a Silver Bulletin article instead of ~1%. At 538, ~15% of our traffic came from Twitter!”

— Nate Silver, Data analyst

“Nate is posting bullshit”

— Elon Musk

What’s next

Elon Musk has dismissed Nate Silver's analysis of X's declining engagement, calling it "bullshit." However, the data from NiemanLab's own analysis generally supports Silver's claims that newsrooms publishing links alongside X posts are seeing poor engagement, including on future posts.

The takeaway

EFF's departure from X highlights the broader trend of high-profile organizations and individuals leaving the platform as its engagement and ability to drive traffic continues to decline. This raises questions about the long-term viability of X as a viable source of traffic and audience for publishers and advocacy groups, especially as they grapple with broader shifts in the online media landscape.