Elon Musk At this point, it can already be said that he has been the most controversial CEO that Twitter has had in its entire history. Largely because the last few months have been turbulent, both for employees and users.
But now the executive is about to do something that many did not expect, especially after seeing all the other previous business decisions with this social network where the main driving force seems to be the need to generate profit.
There is the matter of Twitter Blue, the changes with the two-step verification to charge extra now and the closure of the API that have sparked harsh criticism among fans of what was formerly Twitter.
However, now, against all odds, Elon Musk has commented out of the blue that the algorithm of the social network is just a few days away from being released to make it an open source resource. Why would I do this?
Elon Musk was never a fan of the Twitter algorithm
over there May last year 2022 we remember how Musk held an intense talk on Twitter and against Jack Dorsey, creator and first CEO of Twitter, when a series of changes were implemented in the interface of the platform to give more weight to the feed driven by the algorithm:
“You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don’t realize. I am not suggesting malice in the algorithm, rather it is trying to guess what you might want to read.
And in doing so, he inadvertently manipulates or amplifies your views without you even realizing that this is happening.”
This was what Musk argued at the time when discussing the problems with the algorithm. Although, in reality, we don’t have a firm impression that anything has radically changed on that issue since he came on as CEO.
However, this Tuesday, February 21, he took the community by surprise by using his own official Twitter account to comment to a user who criticized him that in fact he would release the algorithm next week, that is, before the start of March. 2023:
Prepare to be disappointed at first when our algorithm is made open source next week, but it will improve rapidly!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 21, 2023
In a series of subsequent tweets Elon Musk says he is concerned that the de facto bias in the “Twitter algorithm” will have a major effect on public discourse. Wondering how it would be possible to know what is really going on.
Such a series of statements raises the question of precisely what elements of the algorithm will be open sourced and what will be possible to do with it.