On July 13, shortly after Donald Trump was focused by an assassination try, Elon Musk, the billionaire proprietor of X (previously Twitter), tweeted to his greater than 200 million followers:
I totally endorse President Trump and hope for his speedy restoration.
Musk’s efforts to affect who wins subsequent week’s US presidential election have continued. For instance, over the previous three months, he has donated greater than US$100 million to a political motion committee referred to as America PAC that’s selling Trump.
However our new analysis (presently out there in preprint kind) signifies Musk could also be wielding affect in different extra refined methods as properly. Nonetheless, the platform’s rising opacity to researchers makes this tough to say for sure.
Shortly after Musk endorsed Trump’s presidential marketing campaign, there was a statistically anomalous increase in engagement together with his X account. Out of the blue, his posts have been getting a lot larger views, retweets and likes compared to different outstanding political accounts on the platform.
This raises suspicions as as to whether Musk has tweaked the platform’s algorithm to extend the attain of his posts upfront of the US presidential election. It additionally demonstrates the issues with how social media platforms like X are presently regulated world wide.
Not the primary time
Musk has historical past relating to tweaking X’s algorithms so his personal content material reaches extra individuals.
Final yr, he reportedly mobilised a crew of round 80 engineers to algorithmically increase his posts. This got here after his tweet supporting the Philadelphia Eagles through the Tremendous Bowl was outperformed by an identical one from President Joe Biden.
Musk appeared to substantiate this occurred, posting an image depicting one girl labelled “Elon’s tweets” forcibly bottle feeding one other girl labelled “Twitter”.
To see whether or not Musk has achieved this once more within the leadup to the US election, we in contrast Musk’s engagement metrics – such because the variety of views, retweets and likes – with a set of different outstanding political accounts on the social media platform. The information spans the interval from January 1 2024 to October 25 2024.
Different political accounts that served as a foundation of comparability embrace these of right-wing commentators Jack Posobiec, Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr. Our examine additionally examined accounts on the different finish of the political spectrum, together with these of US Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, US Senator Bernie Sanders and Vice-President Kamala Harris.
A sudden and important enhance
Since July, engagement with Musk’s X account has seen a sudden and important enhance.
The view counts for his posts elevated by 138%, retweets by 238%, and likes by 186%.
In distinction, different outstanding political accounts on X noticed extra reasonable will increase: 57% in view counts, 152% in retweets, and 130% in likes.
This means that whereas engagement went up for all accounts after July, Musk’s metrics noticed a very massive increase, notably in retweets and likes.
The analysis additional discovered that since July, different conservative and right-wing X accounts have carried out higher when it comes to visibility of posts in comparison with progressive and left-wing accounts.
The Dialog sought remark from X in regards to the analysis, however didn’t obtain a reply earlier than deadline.
With out backstage entry to the workings of the corporate, it’s unimaginable to know for positive whether or not modifications to its curation system are boosting its proprietor’s posts. The platform has restricted the entry it offers to researchers since Musk took over. This implies there are restrictions on the quantity of information we have been capable of gather for this examine.
Nonetheless, the Washington Submit just lately discovered that tweets from Republicans are much more prone to go viral, receiving billions extra views than these from Democrats. Equally, an investigation by the Wall Avenue Journal revealed that new customers to the platform “are being blanketed with political content material” that disproportionately favours Trump.
Since Musk’s buy of the platform, it has turn out to be extra congenial to figures on the appropriate, together with individuals who have been beforehand banned for spreading dangerous and false info.
The parable of neutrality
The findings elevate the query of the extent to which Musk’s influential social media platform is reinforcing its proprietor’s political agenda.
Musk, whose companies have intensive authorities contracts, has made a public and monetary spectacle of his unabashed assist of Trump. The billionaire tech tycoon is reportedly Trump’s second-biggest monetary donor. He additionally promoted Trump in a glitchy dwell interview on X and authored a stream of tweets selling Trump’s marketing campaign.
Musk can also be handing out $1 million a day to chose registered voters. This plan (which has met with questions over its legality) apparently goals to spice up voter registration amongst sympathisers in swing states.
Musk’s actions have torpedoed the fantasy that social media platforms reminiscent of X are impartial. Given he has beforehand tweaked X’s algorithm to amplify the attain of his posts, it will be stunning if he weren’t tilting the platform in favour of Trump, whom he believes is “the trail to prosperity”.
For too lengthy, social media platforms have loved immunity for the knowledge they selectively inject into customers’ feeds. It’s time for governments to rethink their strategy to regulating the oligopolistic energy over our info surroundings wielded by a handful of tech billionaires.
- Timothy Graham, Affiliate Professor in Digital Media, Queensland College of Expertise and Mark Andrejevic, Professor, College of Media, Movie, and Journalism, Monash College, Monash College
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