Elon Musk changed X algorithms for self-promotion and promotion of Republicans – study

After Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now X), some people expressed fears that the new owner would use the social network for self-promotion and political campaigning. A new study has confirmed these assumptions – X’s algorithms now really «like» two things: Elon Musk himself and Republicans.

So, Elon Musk and his X platform probably changed the algorithms to increase the popularity of his account, as well as the accounts of other users with conservative views. This most likely happened during the period when Musk announced his support for Donald Trump in the presidential campaign. This is stated in a new study by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). It turned out that after this announcement, Musk’s posts suddenly became much more popular.

The authors of the study — Associate Professor of Digital Media Timothy Graham from QUT and Professor of Communications and Media Mark Andrejevic from Monash University — compared the activity on Musk’s account before and after his support for Trump in July. They found that starting on July 13, his posts received 138% more views and 238% more retweets than before.

Musk showed a higher growth rate of activity than the general trends on the platform, the researchers said. They also found that other accounts with Republican views also received an increase in engagement, albeit to a lesser extent.

The results of the study are in line with findings previously published by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post about the possible bias of X algorithms in favor of right-wing views. However, the researchers note that they were limited by the relatively small amount of data available to «because the platform has stopped accessing its academic API. They added that while they found no evidence of data loss, there is no guarantee that all posts were collected by».

Source: The Verge