After being called out for tweaking Twitter’s algorithm and boosting his posts and tweets, Elon Musk falsely accused journalists of misreporting facts. However, it was Twitter’s own internal data that exposed Musk and his lies.
It seems that at times, Elon Musk’s worst enemy is the Twitter platform itself, and sometimes, his own self. After believing that he was being shadowbanned by the platform and some engineers who he then fired, Musk apparently got his team to tweak Twitter’s algorithm to boost his tweets.
Accidentally, it was his account that got boosted. As a result, everyone’s timeline was filled Elon Musk, what he tweeted, what he liked, and what he did on Twitter. What gave the plot away was the fact that Twitter apparently also showed Musk’s tweets and likes to people who did not follow him. The news that Elon Musk had asked his team to manipulate Twitter’s algorithm to boost his tweets, was first reported by The Platformer.
On Friday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk began denying rumours that the business altered the platform’s algorithm to deliberately elevate Musk’s posts this week.
Musk goes on the offensive, falsely accuses journalists”Many major media outlets wrongly stated earlier this week that my Tweets were boosted above typical levels,” Musk tweeted. “A check of my Twitter likes and views over the last 6 months, particularly as a ratio of followers, demonstrates that this is untrue.”
Musk went on to say that “a problem momentarily caused replies to have the same prominence as initial Tweets, but that has already been addressed.” Musk did recognise a problem with the “algorithm” at the time.
Nevertheless, Musk’s allegations are challenged by Twitter’s own statistics, which shows a significant increase in impressions on Musk’s tweets that correspond to the claimed timetable for Twitter’s algorithm adjustments.
Musk’s accusations fall flat, thanks to Twitter’s own dataTimothy Graham, a researcher at Queensland University of Technology, examined the data, which was obtained directly from Twitter’s official API, and discovered that impressions on Musk’s tweets increased by 737 per cent on Feb. 13, the day after the Super Bowl, and shortly after the reported algorithm changes were implemented. The daily impressions on Musk’s tweets roughly quadrupled in the days that followed, well after Musk’s statement recognised an algorithm fault.
Musk backed up his version of events by tweeting about a “examination” of his “Tweet likes & views over the previous 6 months.” He shared a snapshot of the 311 million impressions one of his tweets — the one about putting the cocaine back in Coca-Cola — garnered in April of last year as proof of this evaluation, and added that none of his subsequent tweets had “gone close” to that amount yet. Individual tweets from individuals with fewer than 1,000 followers, on the other hand, often become viral and receive millions of views.
Platformer stands by its reportAs Platformer originally reported, Twitter developers were tasked with making improvements to the platform immediately after the Super Bowl on Sunday after one of Musk’s tweets and a similar message from President Joe Biden both failed to work. The next day, Twitter received a “fix” that “artificially raised Musk’s posts by a factor of 1,000.”
The algorithm tweak was so clear that users began complaining that their feeds were being clogged with Musk’s tweets.
Nonetheless, Musk claims that the Platformer allegation is “bogus” and that the source is a “disgruntled employee who had been on paid leave for months, had already taken a position at Google, and felt the need to poison the well on the way out.” Musk then stated that Twitter will file a lawsuit against the individual.
Casey Newton of Platformer said that Musk’s assertions were false and that the publication stood by its report.
Musk’s checkered history of going after journalistsThis isn’t the first time Twitter’s statistics has undermined Musk or his supporters’ assertions this week.
Musk supporters claimed on Thursday new report of Tesla unsubscribing from Twitter Blue was incorrect. A Community Note was attached to a tweet linking to the story falsely insisting that because Tesla is business verified with the gold checkmark, it could not be a Twitter Blue subscriber to begin with.
Yet, data from Twitter’s official API revealed that Tesla had actually unsubscribed from Twitter Blue in the previous week. Additionally, the data supplied examples of company-verified accounts with gold check marks that are also enrolled to Twitter Blue, refuting the allegation that Tesla’s Twitter Blue subscription was impossible to begin with.
Also read: Twitter bans several prominent journalists who covered Elon Musk’s Twitter shenanigans
Previously, Elon Musk had also gone after journalists when Twitter banned a bunch of notable journalists from the platform who were covering Elon Musk and his various companies, by falsely accusing them of doxing him and his family, during the ElonJet Twitter bot fiasco.
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