Social Media As an Echo Chamber

Social media is the supposed modern public square. It is where everyone is entitled to an opinion. It is where people of different persuasions can exchange thoughts and ideas. But what has become increasingly clear over time is that these are not squares, but silos. These are not places where facts are solidified, rather they are platforms where prejudices are confirmed and biases are affirmed. While Twitter (now X) was the OG, several new platforms have cropped up and are trying to win over more followers. One would imagine that with time these platforms would try to curate more diverse followers. Instead, quite the opposite is happening. Today, each platform bolsters only the voices it supports.

With Elon Musk’s reimagining of Twitter as X, the platform has seen its fair share of changes, where tweets of a certain persuasion are promoted. Threads from Meta came up as a rival to X, and today has 320 million monthly active users. While there was an initial avalanche of interest in Threads, it soon petered out, leaving X as the dominant voice.

Today, if one were to look at Truth Social (majority owned by US President Donald Trump) and Bluesky (founded by Jack Dorsey) one can see the respective echo chambers. Trump started Truth Social after he was banned from Facebook and Twitter in 2021, following the 2021 Capitol attack. The platform took off in February 2022. Since then, nearly 85 percent of its 6.3 million users continue to be US based. On March 17, 2025 Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined Truth Social and while his followers on X (108.6 million) far outnumber his followers on Truth Social (104k) it is clear that he recognises its importance, if only to keep up with Trump and his ramblings.
Trump’s use of Truth Social is both bewildering and fascinating. He posts multiple times a day. He spurns all niceties of grammar, punctuation and statesman-like decorum. He uses all caps to make his point. He uses all caps to tell us he means business. Just a day ago, he posted, “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE.

Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” And two days ago, he wrote, “Today, I signed an Executive Order to launch the first-ever self-deportation program. Illegal aliens who stay in America face punishments, including—sudden deportation, in a place and manner solely of our discretion. TO ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS: BOOK YOUR FREE FLIGHT RIGHT NOW!”

Truth Social is his platform to not only reach the like-minded, it is a tool for self-aggrandisement and a weapon for his beliefs, his ‘truths’. It is also Trump’s way to avenge the Democratic liberal cabal that has a stronghold on other platforms such as Bluesky.

While Dorsey first envisaged Bluesky as “possibility of decentralizing Twitter”, Bluesky has become its own echo chamber. An April 7 article in Wired ran with the headline and strap, “Bluesky Can’t Take a Joke.” “Bluesky has been a safe haven for users fleeing X and Threads. But while there’s less hate, there’s also fewer lolz.” If you open the Bluesky app and randomly scroll through the feed you will be welcomed with earnest posts by AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the firebrand Democrat). You’ll see multiple retweets of Stephen King asking, “Anyone else notice how all of a sudden no one’s eating our cats and dogs anymore?” You’ll see multiple posts scorning Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US Secretary of Health and Human Services, and his approach to measles. Bluesky is where the liberals come to roost, it is where they can embrace their wokeness, and where they can congratulate themselves for their ways.

Each of these platforms are echo chambers in themselves. One is dedicated to voices on the right and the other to voices on the left. Users are not looking for varied opinions, they are only cherry picking the facts that suit their preconceived beliefs and agendas. In the US, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform by far, with 178 million active users per month, followed by YouTube and Instagram. X comes ninth in popularity, followed by Threads and Bluesky. Truth Social doesn’t make it to even the top 12.

In India, the picture is different, as WhatsApp is the most popular with 535 million users, X comes seventh with 28 million users, and there are still no official number of Indian users on Truth Social and Bluesky.

The number of social media platforms will keep rising, but they have become like groups in a school yard, where cliques of friends huddle together and appreciate each other, while they mock and scorn and point fingers at the others. Social media is hardly a public square today; instead it is a chamber of distorted mirrors, where one merely sees the likeness of oneself and one’s opinions in different angles and lights. There are no sacred ‘facts’ today, there is no one truth, instead there are ‘truths’ that are followed by one side of the ideological divide, and ‘truths’ that are followed by the other side, and never the twain seem to meet.

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