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Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s social media posts have had a ‘sudden boost’ since July, new research reveals
- A new study shows that engagement with Elon Musk on Twitter has risen since July. Since then, the view counts for his post increased by 138%, retweets by 238%, and likes by 186%. This research potentially raises suspicions that Musk has tweaked the platform’s algorithm to increase the reach of his post in advance of the US presidential election. Musk previously mobilized a team of around 80 engineers in 2019 to algorithmically boost his posts.
- The research compared Musk’s engagement metrics with a set of other prominent political accounts on the social media platform, such as Jack Posobiec, Tucker Carlson, and Donald Trump Jr, as well as compared his account with progressive and left-wing accounts. Other conservative and right-wing X accounts have performed better in terms of visibility of posts compared to progressive and left-wing accounts. Therefore, the findings raise the question of the extent to which Musk’s influential social media platform is reinforcing its owner’s political agenda.
- Musk’s donations exceed $100m to America PAC, a political action committee that’s promoting President Trump. However, the platform’s increasing opacity to researchers makes this difficult to say for certain. This research demonstrates the problems with how social media platforms like Twitter are currently regulated around the world and the amount of data researchers can access.
- The Conversation, a not-for-profit news site, sought comment from Twitter about the research, but did not receive a reply before the deadline. The platform has limited the access it provides to researchers since Musk took over. Therefore researchers claim the restricted access means there are restrictions on the amount of data they are able to collect for this study.
- Since Musk’s purchase of the platform, it has become more congenial to figures on the right, including people who were previously banned for spreading harmful and false information. Previously, tweets from Republicans are more likely to go viral than those from Democrats. It would not be surprising if Musk were not pivoting the platform in favor of Trump as he has previously adjusted the platform’s algorithm to amplify the reach of his posts.
- During the US presidential election, social media platforms such as Twitter have been taking action to combat the spread of misinformation on its platform, like Facebook. Given that Musk has previously used his platform to amplify his agenda and his support for Trump, it is reasonable to speculate that he is doing it again.
- Musk’s action raises the question of the extent to which influential social media platforms are reinforcing the political agendas of their owners. Social media platforms like Twitter selectively inject information into users’ feeds and have been protected from government regulation for too long, in terms of being oligopolistic power wielded by tech billionaires.
- Musk’s action challenges the myth of neutrality on Twitter. As one of the billionaires who wields significant power over the information environment, it is time that governments reconsider their hands-off approach to regulating the oligopolistic power guarded by a handful of tech billionaires.
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