Research from the University of Queensland has analyzed the possible algorithmic bias in X -formerly Twitter- after the emergence of its owner, the South African tycoon Elon Muskin the US presidential campaign in favor of donald trump. This change would have influenced the re-election of the former president.
The study carried out by the teachers Timothy Graham and Mark Andrejevic has discovered a structural change in the entrepreneur’s metrics. After analyze 56,184 posts of the social network between January 1 and September 25, 2024, have come to the conclusion that “Musk’s publications received a marked increase in visibility, amplification and user interaction which exceeded overall engagement trends seen across the platform.”
Musk’s account, therefore, would have achieved a privileged place in the timelines of userspositioning the content favorably thanks to the algorithm change. The magnate’s views would have increased by 138.27%, and retweets, by 237.94%.
Musk would not be the only one to benefit from this change. The researchers point out a increase in views, retweets and favorites after studying other Republican-leaning accounts -like those of Ben Shapiro, Donald Trump Jr. or Tucker Carlson-, a rise that they do not observe in that of their rivals, the Democrats – in this case, examining Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders or Kamala Harris herself.
This increase in visibility would have been reflected in the “For you” tab of Graham and Andrejevic maintain that it is in this section where the algorithm would have been exposing users to the content Musk wanted.
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