Researchers claim to pinpoint the exact date when Elon’s “X” started boosting the right
Researchers have been trying for a long time to prove that X, the platform formerly called Twitter, has an algorithmic bias towards conservative content. Since Elon Musk purchased the platform in 2022 right-wing accounts on the website have been so prevalent that observers suspect they are being actively promoted. Researchers claim they have evidence that the site has its finger on the scale. They also say that promotion likely began on a very specific date: the day a would-be assassin took a shot at Donald Trump during a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In a working paper entitled “A computational analysis of potential algorithmic bias on platform X during the 2024 US election,” researchers with the Queensland University of Technology in Australia argue that there is evidence that the microblogging site began promoting conservative content to users in the months before Americans cast their ballots. Researchers used “statistical models to rigorously compare engagement patterns before and after a key change point.” The research was designed to determine whether prominent conservative accounts–including Musk’s–were being algorithmically favored by the platform.
According to researchers, there is evidence that’s the case, and they also claim to have pinpointed the exact date that X began to see a surge in engagement with right-wing content. The report states that “the analysis revealed a structural shift in engagement around mid-July, 2024.” This suggests platform-level changes influenced engagement metrics across all accounts. Musk’s support for Trump coincided with the day Trump was shot by a gunman. Musk wrote in a post shared on X that he “fully endorses President Trump and hopes for his rapid recuperation.” Researchers found that after Musk’s support, the Republican-leaning account saw a massive surge in page views compared to Democrat accounts. Researchers write that such findings could be indicative of a “possible recommendation bias” that favored Republican content “in terms of visibility, potentially via recommendation mechanisms such as the ‘For You’ feed.”
However, the account with the most evidence of promotion seems to have been the one belonging to Musk himself, researchers write. Researchers write that the report shows that Musk’s engagement metrics received a significant boost after the structural change. This study isn’t first to suggest that Musk’s platform has an algorithmic bias towards conservatives. The Wall Street Journal also claimed that X appeared to feed right-wing material to new accounts. Musk began to promote increasingly unhinged conspiracy theories on the right as early as 2022. It was reported in April that Nazi-affiliated users had started to appear on the site. Pew Research conducted a study that found the site’s rightward shift has been ongoing under Musk. Bluesky, which was created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has gained up to a million new users per day in the weeks following the election. Traffic on the site increased by 500%. It has grown modestly since 2022 when it was separated from Twitter. Now, the site has around 20 million users, and is growing rapidly. Someone even created a counter to track the site’s rapid growth. Around 100,000 accounts on X were closed after the election. Some of these accounts belonged to notable users like Don Lemon, The Guardian and Mark Hamill. The outflow of users has been dubbed the ‘X-odus.’
Bluesky is a weird, fun site, that is, in many ways, indistinguishable from X (except for all the rightwing content). It is hard to believe that X would simply collapse. Musk, who is now officially part of Trump’s administration, is unwilling to give up the site, which has millions of users every day. It is not profitable, and continues to lose money at an alarming rate. But it is too important politically for Musk, as he is now in charge of his DOGE task force dedicated towards “government efficiency.” As Musk moves into the White House to head his DOGE task force dedicated to “government efficiency,” X will continue to prove a useful medium by which to spread the new government’s messaging.
There are also signs that, with Trump’s victory, revenue flows that had previously abandoned X are starting to return. Since Trump’s re-election, a number of advertisers who had abandoned the platform have returned, including Disney and Comcast. According to an unconfirmed report by Adweek, Discovery and Lionsgate Entertainment have returned. In summary: I doubt that X’s increasingly right-wing tenor will turn off enough users for the platform to tank.
