Since Twitter's transformation into X, as announced by Elon Musk in October 2022 with his tweet "the bird is freed," the platform has undergone significant changes. How do these developments affect users as well as research conducted on this social media platform? In this episode, Rita Gsenger and Jasper Hendrickx talk with Felix Gaisbauer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. They discuss the new challenges faced by researchers and examine the implications of the platform’s transformation for democracy and public