Lawfare Daily: What’s Influencing Politics Online? X’s Algorithm, Creators, and the New Persuasion Machine

In this episode, Lawfare Contributing Editor Renée DiResta speaks with Nathaniel Lubin, co-author of “How Social Media Creators Shape Mass Politics,” and Philine Widmer, co-author of a recent Nature paper, “The Political Effects of X’s Feed Algorithm.” Together, they discuss two different layers of online influence—a platform’s algorithms and the trusted voices inside it—and their implications for mass politics.

The conversation explores what happens when recommendation systems shape what people see, and what happens when creators shape how people interpret it. They discuss whether algorithms move political attitudes by shifting exposure and salience, whether creators are persuasive because audiences trust them, and what these findings suggest about political influence in an environment increasingly organized by feeds, rankings, and parasocial relationships.

Additional reading: 

• “Twitter Is Not Real Life,” by Lakshya Jain in The Argument, February 5, 2026
• “X Really Is Pulling Users to the Right,” by John Herrman in Intelligencer, February 21, 2026

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