Climate communication in the stormy transition of Twitter to X

This study investigates the transition of Twitter to ‘X’ under Elon Musk’s ownership, focusing on its impact on climate change discourse. Historically, Twitter has served as a public sphere for political and social communication, but Musk’s takeover has made the platform and the information behaviors of its users undergo drastic transitions. Using Ruthven’s information behavior theory of transitions, this paper finds that not only do individuals experience stages of transitions, but the same process can occur at the community level, though in a more non-linear way. We analyzed more than 7 million tweets posted during the transition and captured users’ understanding and negotiating behaviors. We employed large language models (LLMs) with human validation for stance detection, constructed conversation networks and endorsing networks, and tested hypotheses regarding negotiating through linear regression models. Our findings reveal more active interaction patterns between climate change believers and deniers, and a growing concentration of opinion leadership among believers. These results highlight the complex and dynamic nature of the transitions that Twitter/X, as a public sphere, has been undergoing due to its leadership changes.