Historically, the youth vote has almost always been won by the left and the Democratic party. This is because they knew how to communicate popular policy correctly through accessible media. However, with Donald Trump and social media, this trend is starting to change, with every state swinging rightward and social media showing much more attention to Trump and the right. This is due to a combination of how social media works as well as the moderation of social media changing.
The way that social media creates algorithms and funds their platforms inherently favors the right. Social media algorithms are created for individuals through what they interact with. This inherently favors right-wing creators because of their tendency to be controversial. Controversy is perfect for creating a large following on social media, because you will get comments of people disagreeing with you, but the algorithm only sees numbers, not what people are saying. The algorithm thinks people want more, so it recommends your content more, and you gain a a mass following. Especially on social issues and issues with minority groups, the right’s more controversial political takes create a large edge for them on social media.
It is not just the algorithms on social media that have become more rightwing, but the moderation of these platforms as well. The most popular example of moderation of social media becoming more rightwing is the transition of Twitter into X when Elon Musk bought the platform. He bought the platform under the idea that he would depoliticize Twitter and make it free speech for all. However, he hasn’t lived up to these promises, such as when he has censored speech he disagrees with, such as that in support of the trans community, and has been strongly outspoken with his rightwing views even when what he was saying was proven to be false, and even used the platform to raise money for Republicans and Trump through the America Political Action Committee. Large platforms such as X and Trump’s Truth Social are largely safe havens for the right. Meanwhile, the left has no social media platform that is as favorable to them on these levels and sizes.
Even the platforms that are more favorable to the left, such as the platforms on Meta, are increasingly turning to the right. Meta has changed moderation policies on hate speech, allowing hate speech against the queer community and especially the Trans community, and they have de-emphasized political content. However, this de-emphasization of political content on their platforms mostly has affected leftwing creators, as it targeted accounts that talked about government and social issues, with accountabletech.org saying they found a 65% drop in reach on the algorithm for progressive accounts on Meta. This is furthering the lead the right has on social media as well as furthering ties with big tech companies and Donald Trump.
While many may disagree because their algorithms are filled with leftwing creators or what they consider “woke”, that’s just how individual algorithms work. If you are rightwing and leave comments on leftwing creators disagreeing with them, the algorithm will give you more from the left. But when we look at the algorithm as a whole on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X, we see that Trump’s most popular posts consistently gained over a million likes, while Harris’s most popular posts were never able to even reach a million likes.
Overall, the trend rightward for social media shows no signs of slowing soon without action. With social media being the primary media of the youth, it is likely that they will continue to shift right. This will inevitably lead to more polarization in the decades to come, and if the left doesn’t change how they approach social media, they will lose the youth. As said by Hans Schemm, “Those who have the youth on their side control the future.”
