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The X algorithm shows users political content whether they like it or not
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The X algorithm shows users political content whether they like it or not

Political content is inserted into the feeds of new X users, even if they have selected other interests such as cooking, sports and crafts.

Customers who come to analysis of the The Wall Street Journal. The political content turned out to be tilted in favor of the former president. Donald Trump and sow doubt on the integrity of the election on November 5.

The X algorithm shows users political content whether they like it or not
Workers install lighting on an “X” sign atop the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, July 28, 2023. A year ago, Elon Musk began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The newspaper created 14 accounts on the social media platform, registering them in different states and selecting only non-political interests for its “For You” pages. However, the majority of messages posted in their feeds were partisan or election-related.

The analysis revealed Kamala HarrisThe Trump campaign was No. 1 for most viewed accounts, but 10 of the other 14 most viewed accounts leaned to the right, including the Trump campaign. So while Harris’ campaign strategy of embracing memes and viral posts from young voters to expand her audience may be paying off, the newspaper reported that pro-Trump content was almost twice as prevalent as pro-Trump content. pro-Harris media.

One article that was seen by almost every new newspaper account was from catturd2 and said: “If this grimacing, dingbat, zero vote, airheaded Kamala Harris is capable of cheating enough to win the presidency, the United States is finished. »

One of the accounts created was located in Pennsylvania and selected parenting, baseball, and painting as interests. In a single session, X inserted political messages, including a livestream of a Trump rally, into the thread. A pro-Trump platform, End Wokeness, was seen by 13 of the accounts created.

Of the 26,000 unique posts seen in the accounts’ feeds, less than a third were political in nature, but political content was shown to the accounts so often that more than half of the content in the feeds was political.

An account interested in running, theme parks, and crafts saw the most political content, and an account interested in travel, music, and science saw the least.

The experiment did not establish why X recommended political content.

“The algorithm is open source and simply tries to show people what they are most likely to find interesting.” Elon Musk job the X in August. Musk’s account is recommended as the first account to follow when creating an X account, and his posts have appeared at the top of the For You accounts page more than any other user.

Musk approved Trump on July 13 and financially supported him in his campaign. Yet Musk insists that X’s content dealings are separate from his personal views.

“The platform is neutral, but I will express all my opinions”, Musk job in June.

Former X engineers said several factors could influence the sudden influx of political content on the site. X has reinstated thousands of suspended accounts that previously violated the platform’s policies. These accounts included many right-wing users and Trump’s own account, @realdonaldtrump, which was deleted after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Before being bought by Musk at the end of 2022, Twitter’s research department found the site already favored right-wing voices. Before researchers could figure out why the algorithm was serving the content, Musk bought the company and eliminated the research department.

THE Pew Research Center found that 53% of right-wing users now view X more favorably, up from 17% in 2021. Left-wing users still outnumbered right-wing users on X last year, 26% to 20%.