The Thinking ‘Kat: X’s Algorithm
It’s hardly a secret that Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is pro right-wing. What is not necessarily as widely known is that he, or someone on his behalf, is clearly manipulating the algorithm on X to push right-wing content and views at its users. The ‘For you’ section of X certainly does not offer a lot of content that suits my tastes, and I dare say many users would share my experience.
The Tories, Reform and their ilk stand for everything I despise, so why is it that the For you section of X is trying to feed me a string of pro-Reform material, sprinkled with some pro-Tory stuff for good measure, in spite of my browsing habits and account interactions? I do not care for people whimsically and foolishly defending the unchecked hoarding of wealth, so why am I seeing this sort of rhetoric on my feed?
This isn’t some sort of random coincidence. This is orchestrated. This is being directed and driven by Musk and his allies. Sky News recently ran an experiment that showed this in no uncertain terms, and it goes to underscore the hypocrisy that Musk has where it comes to freedom of expression and balance in the media. It’s a difficult post to quote from due to its format, but it effectively shows how Musk, who claims to value freedom of speech, throttles accounts and views he does not favour.
One of the big problems with this is that Musk is being very vocal about UK political matters, and doing what he can to influence proceedings, despite lacking any formal authority or power. People will buy into his statements, and they will believe what they see coming from hard-right sources on X, without so much as a second thought. He is trying very hard to affect the discourse, and he is increasingly inflammatory. Twisting what was once actually a semi-reasonable place for discussion into a cesspit of right-wing bots and radicalised voices is a serious abuse of the responsibilities he should have assumed if he was ever serious about freedom of speech.
It might be best to move on from X, but I do find it useful for book promotion, and I still have friends there. Still, for more reasonable conservations, check out Blusky, Mastodon, and to a degree, Threads.
