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Following Musk's Tantrum, Twitter Changed Its Algorithm To Artificially Boost His Tweets

On February 14, many people’s Twitter feeds were flooded with Musk messages instead of the usual Valentine’s Day content. According to an investigation by journalists at Platformer, the “glitch” was caused by a change in algorithm ordered by Musk. Twitter CEO complained that his tweet about the Super Bowl got less engagement than President Biden’s.
Twitter changed its algorithm to artificially boost his tweets 7 photos
Photo: Elon Musk via Twitter | Edited
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Elon Musk may have surprised many people when he announced his decision to buy Twitter. Nevertheless, the real surprise was when people found out that Musk’s new toy was keeping him busy more than it should, distracting him from more important affairs. Musk invested a lot of his time and energy into managing Twitter, and one can say he lives and breathes through his tweets. This probably explains why he was unsatisfied with how his message fared during the Super Bowl weekend.

Musk reportedly tweeted a “Go Eagles!” message on February 12, generating around 9.1 million impressions. Nevertheless, it was dwarfed by a similar tweet by President Biden supporting his wife in rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles. Biden’s tweet generated nearly 29 million impressions, making Musk frustrated. Tesla’s CEO later deleted his tweet, and on Sunday night, as he returned to the Bay Area, he demanded answers from his team.

According to the Platformer, this is when Elon’s cousin, James Musk, sent a distress message to Twitter engineers at 2:36 on Monday morning. The message sounded urgent, but the nature of this urgency would baffle Twitter engineers.

“We are debugging an issue with engagement across the platform,” wrote James Musk on Slack. “Any people who can make dashboards and write software, please can you help solve this problem? This is high urgency. If you are willing to help out, please thumbs up this post.”

The consequences of this meeting would become clear on Tuesday as Twitter users opened the app to find that Musk’s tweets overwhelmed their curated feeds. According to Platformer, this was no accident. Musk threatened to fire engineers, so they altered the algorithm to ensure Musk’s tweets reached the platform’s entire user base. This explains why everybody saw dozens of Musk’s tweets in their feeds, even when they didn’t follow him on Twitter.

Musk acknowledged the uproar his tweets caused, hence his famous “forced to drink milk” meme from February 14. He later appeared willing to correct the issue. “Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh .… “algorithm,” he tweeted. Since then, the problem has been corrected, in part, although Musk’s tweets are still boosted compared to regular users. His latest tweets generated between 20 and 50 million impressions, which is on the high end of their average performance.

“He bought the company, made a point of showcasing what he believed was broken and manipulated under previous management, then turns around and manipulates the platform to force engagement on all users to hear only his voice,” one current employee told Platformer. “I think we’re past the point of believing that he actually wants what’s best for everyone here.”

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About the author: Cristian Agatie
Cristian Agatie profile photo

After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions.
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