Remember when corporate America steered clear of politics on social media?
Work & Economy Remember when corporate America steered clear of politics on social media? Elisabeth Kempf.Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer Christina Pazzanese Harvard Staff Writer June 11, 2025 7 min read Study finds Twitter surge starting in 2017, most of it Democratic-leaning by surprising range of firms, with negative effects on stock price There was a time when corporate America was not very online. Most companies used social media for promoting products and services or engaging with consumers in a friendly fashion. Political posts on a company Twitter account were rare. That all changed between 2012 and 2022, when the volume of partisan speech on Twitter (now called X) from large corporations surged, more than doubling beginning in 2017, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. Researchers said the spike was driven disproportionately by companies using language associated with Democratic politicians. The moves frequently had negative effects on company stock prices. In this edited conversation, the paper’s co-author...