The Reason Why

In 2016, it was micro-targeting on Facebook. People got hip to it, Facebook kinda crumbled, and 2020 was relatively clean.

Then along comes Elmo, and it gets really dirty again.

A scatter plot titled "Poster boy: Posts by Elon Musk on Twitter/X, by time."

The chart tracks the frequency of Musk's posts from 2014 to 2024, with the timeline on the horizontal axis and the time of day (00:00 to 23:59) on the vertical axis.

Each red dot represents one post.

The density of posts increases significantly around 2022, coinciding with Musk's acquisition of Twitter (marked on the chart as "Musk buys Twitter").

Before this, posts were scattered and sparse. After the acquisition, the chart shows a dramatic rise in activity, with dense clusters of red dots throughout the day and night.

The source is listed as Twitter/X and *The Economist*.