Musk announces X algorithm tweak to reduce negativity
The X owner, billionaire Elon Musk, must have been unnerved by all those attacks by the MAGA people. He has now announced plans to alter the algorithm of the platform “over too much negativity.”
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The X owner, billionaire Elon Musk, must have been unnerved by all those attacks by the MAGA people. He has now announced plans to alter the algorithm of the platform “over too much negativity.”
Over the last several weeks, right-wing activists and commentators have been relentlessly attacking Musk over his pro-immigration views, throwing in some well-grounded observations about the billionaire’s ways of doing business.
This must have irritated Musk because he seems to not like what he’s seeing on X anymore – so much so that he has now announced an upcoming “algorithm tweak” in the platform. Typically, it looks like he’s also invented a new metric to measure user engagement.
“Algorithm tweak coming soon to promote more informational/entertaining content,” wrote Musk.
“Our goal is to maximize unregretted user-seconds. Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not unregretted user time.”
Algorithm tweak coming soon to promote more informational/entertaining content. We will publish the changes to @XEng.
undefined Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 4, 2025
Our goal is to maximize unregretted user-seconds. Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not unregretted user time.
Musk later added that the platform was working on ways for users to adjust their content feeds themselves. Still, the timing of his announcement is surely interesting – no wonder right-wing personalities were the first to criticize the aforementioned tweak, fearing they’d be silenced.
For instance, Candace Owens, a conservative commentator, called Musk’s idea a “beautiful euphemism for the censorship of ideas.”
Why wasn’t Jack Dorsey clever enough to simply say he was “deboosting negativity” on the site?
undefined Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) January 4, 2025
Beautiful euphemism for the censorship of ideas.
Another user said he was canceling his subscription, adding: “I’m not paying for the tech bro to sit here and deboost people for ‘free speech’ that he claimed to promote.”
MAGA influencers – most of whom have been bashing Musk over his pro-immigration views – have already accused him of censoring and deboosting their platforms on X for disagreeing with him.
However, some observers say that because Musk continues to spout anti-immigrant posts daily, it’s unlikely he will suddenly switch sides or even become the true free speech champion he’s always claimed to be.
“This is definitely interesting timing, given the fact that X essentially rewarded negativity when Biden was president but is shifting to penalize negativity under Trump,” Ed Krassenstein, a left-wing commentator, pointed out.
Besides, what’s “negativity?” Critics say Musk – as the sole arbiter of what’s what in X – might just want to silence debates, and some, in fact, most proper news stories aren’t positive as they report on crime or corruption in politics and business.