Social media platforms, particularly Twitter/X, enabled researchers to test political communication theories and develop new frameworks around representation, agenda setting in political dialogue. This era involved extensive debates about the opportunities and limitations of using social media data for political research. Following Twitter/X's ownership change and loosened moderation policies, the platform saw major changes, including an influx of extremist views. Still, how politicians use and benefit from the platform remains unclear.
Using comparable data of Twitter/X activity of all candidates for the 2014, 2019, and 2024 European Parliament elections, we assess whether social media data still offers valuable political insights. We investigate the pattern of use, the issue coverage, and engagement with the communication of returning candidates (within-individual design). We also analyse changes across all three elections (between-individual design), focusing on candidate characteristics including age and gender, and how this relates to party type.
We provide quantitative evidence suggesting that the content and user profile shifted towards the extreme right. While these changes increased the notoriety of far-right politicians, the narrowing of audiences and the quality of interactions (with increased abuse) disincentivised mainstream politicians from using the platform.
