Elon Musk Blames Increase Of His Tweets In The Twitter 'For You' Feed On New Algorithm
People sick of seeing Elon Musk's tweets in the revamped "For You" section of Twitter will have to "stay tuned," according to the platform's owner and CEO. The controversial billionaire's tweets seem to be more prominent in the section following a recent algorithm change which appears to have followed complaints from the billionaire about his account's reach.
Twitter's "For You" section is essentially a rebrand of Twitter home, which shows tweets from the people you follow, along with algorithmically selected tweets from other accounts, in a non-chronological order. Some users had noticed that the section had been showing an increased number of Musk's tweets — far more than would occur if the algorithm was choosing tweets in a fair and balanced manner.
Musk had previously hit the headlines for firing one of Twitter's engineers over a disagreement on how the algorithm treated his tweets. The tech entrepreneur, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion last year, believed his platform's algorithm was biased against him and his tweets weren't getting the reach he expected from an account with over 100 million followers. The unnamed engineer allegedly told Musk the algorithm had no bias against him, and an unsatisfied Musk responded by firing the engineer on the spot.
Musk makes light of the situation
Elon Musk downplayed the spike in his tweets on Twitter users' timelines. As he often does, Musk posted a meme to make light of the situation. The meme involves a woman, labeled "Elon's tweets," forcing another woman, labeled "Twitter," to drink milk from a bottle while holding her by the hair. Musk followed this up with a second tweet shortly afterward: "Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to [the algorithm]."
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1625407245218648065
While there is no official statement, many speculate Musk used his position to demand his tweets have more prominence on the platform. Engineers then took this a bit too far, resulting in his tweets having more prominence than intended and making the change too obvious. Of course, a more innocent explanation would involve an algorithm change that results in tweets from more popular accounts receiving heightened prominence in the "For You" section — though if this were the case, a wider variety of accounts would likely have shown up in that section.
As it stands, the increased prominence of Musk's tweets, and Musk's tweets alone, has been receiving attention. It is currently unknown how the algorithm will be tweaked and whether the new algorithm will show a positive bias towards the musings of Twitter's owner. Either way, this is just the latest event in a series of erratic calls Musk has made since taking over the platform late last year, and it's unlikely to be the last.