Elon Musk announces ‘algorithm tweak’ to tamp down ‘negativity’ on X
X owner Elon Musk said his social media platform will launch an “algorithm tweak” to tamp down rampant negativity on the site.
Musk — who fashioned himself a “free-speech absolutist” when he bought the site formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion on 2022 — said the new algorithm will push more informational and entertaining content.
“Our goal is to maximize unregretted user-seconds,” Musk wrote in a post on X on Friday. “Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not unregretted user time.”
Some X users accused Musk of hypocrisy after years of the mogul arguing for unbridled free speech on social media platforms, and questioned how X will deem which posts are “negative.”
“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 Florida-based artificial intelligence expert with more than one million followers on X, said in a post.
Other users expressed concern that topics in news articles can often be deemed “negative,” and that the new algorithm could silence important posts.
