After former FOX News TV host Tucker Carlson announced he would interview Russian President Vladimir Putin on X, downloads of the app formerly known as Twitter skyrocketed, and X became a US app overnight. It rose to the top of the Store. Multiple news outlets, including Reuters, the Associated Press and the New York Times, confirmed on Wednesday that Carlson's interview had already taken place, and the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, said the interview would take place on Thursday. I was told that it is scheduled to be broadcast.
Interest in the Carlson-Putin interview likely caused a spike in new installs of the X app, which began climbing the App Store charts around 7 p.m. ET, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures. , which became the number one app by midnight. . The move unseats rival His Instagram Threads, which was previously the top app and is now down to number two.
Image credits: app figure
According to early estimates from Appfigures, X gained 117,000 new downloads on Tuesday, up from 93,000 the day before. The app started gaining momentum later in the evening, so the company believes X can gain even more installs today.
In the video, Carlson touted that the Elon Musk-owned platform will soon broadcast Putin's first interview with Western media since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A Kremlin spokesman told Reuters that Putin agreed to the interview because Karlsson's approach differs from the “one-sided” coverage of Ukraine by many Western media outlets. In other words, Putin believes he will not only receive a sympathetic ear, but also the ability to appeal to a broader, potentially sympathetic audience.
on video Posted on Tuesday afternoon on X, Karlsson appeared in a video shot from a high-rise building in central Moscow. In it, he explained his reasons for interviewing President Putin, saying, “Most Americans have no idea why President Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now.” The former Fox News media personality also implied that Americans have a right to know about these things because they are paying for some of the costs of the Russia-Ukraine war. He also suggested that he was the only one willing to ask Putin for an interview, a sentiment quickly corrected by CNN and PBS journalist Christiane Amanpour. Post:
Does Mr. Tucker really think that we journalists haven't tried to interview him every day since Putin invaded Ukraine in earnest? That's ridiculous. As always, we will continue to seek interviews.
Critics have previously criticized Carlson for seeming sympathetic to Russia's position, and previously asked Fox News viewers to ask themselves what the Ukraine conflict really means and why they dislike Putin so much. I was instructed to do so.
The TV host is one of a handful of creators who have set up shop at the rebranded X under Musk's ownership. However, Mr. Musk It was revealed in May last year, Shortly after Carlson was fired from Fox, it was revealed that X no longer had a TV host contract. Instead, Musk explained that Carlson will still be subject to the rules that govern other content creators at X. This includes rules that give creators a cut of X's ad revenue.
Mr. Musk's politics have moved to the right in recent years, and his tendency to post controversial views on the platform has at times pushed Company X into a corner, even threatening its future profitability. Late last year, for example, X faced a loss of advertisers due to Musk's anti-Semitic comments.
But despite Musk's own tendencies, not all creator content on X reflects his views. For example, top YouTuber MrBeast posted a video on his X in January and earned over $250,000. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon will also have a show on X after being fired from the network last year. Other creators of X include politicians Tulsi Gabbard and Paris Hilton, but The New York Times recently confirmed that they will return to X after all. (Hilton initially terminated her contract with X over Musk's anti-Semitic comments and brand safety concerns, but X CEO Linda Yaccarino returned to her (The report states that he was persuaded to do so.)
The timing of X's sudden rise to the top of the App Store is notable for other reasons besides the Tucker Carlson news.
Yesterday, X's competitor Bluesky opened to the public after an invite-only status. This year, Bluesky plans to launch federation. This means that it acts as a decentralized alternative to Twitter/X, similar to Mastodon. However, while X's other competitors, Mastodon and Instagram Threads, are built on top of ActivityPub, they use a different underlying protocol: the AT protocol.
Yesterday, Bluesky gained about 800,000 new users, but it currently doesn't rank in the top 100 free apps on the U.S. App Store.