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By James Bickerton
News Reporter
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Elon Musk has announced an "algorithm tweak" on X, formerly Twitter, in response to "too much negativity" being pushed on the platform.
The X owner made the announcement on Friday via an X post in which he said he wants to "maximize unregretted user-seconds." Musk purchased what was then Twitter in October 2022 and later reinstated the accounts of a number of previously suspended conservative figures, including President elect Donald Trump who was removed from the platform after the January 6 2021 Capitol Hill riot.
Newsweek contacted the former Twitter press office for comment via email outside of regular office hours.
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Why It Matters
Musk was a prominent backer of Trump's successful 2024 presidential election campaign, after which the incoming president announced he would co-head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency along with fellow business tycoon Vivek Ramaswamy.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has made a number of controversial X interventions in recent days, including urging King Charles III to dissolve the British Parliament and call fresh elections in response to a sex trafficking scandal in the United Kingdom in which predominantly white victims were targeted by mainly men of Pakistani Muslim heritage in towns around the country.
What To Know
Musk wrote: "Algorithm tweak coming soon to promote more informational/entertaining content. We will publish the changes to @Xeng [X Engineering].
"Our goal is to maximize unregretted user-seconds. Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not unregretted user time."
He later added: "We're also working on easy ways for you to adjust the content feed dynamically, so you can have what you want at any given moment."
What People Are Saying
Musk's announcement sparked a mixed reaction from other social media users.
Ed Krassenstein, an artificial intelligence expert with one million followers on X, posted: "Elon Musk just announced that X will start penalizing negativity and propping up posts that are positive. This is definitely interesting timing, given the fact that X essentially rewarded negativity when Biden was president but is shifting to penalize negativity under Trump."
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Another X user, with the handle 'ThatUmbrellaGuy,' wrote: "Elon Musk says the algorithm will punish 'negativity.'
"What's negativity? Criticism of the wrong person, persons, celebs, parties? The news (its oftentimes not cheery)? Advocacy pointing out the ugly happening in our courts? Calling out broken systems? Companies?"
Matthew Camenzuli, an Australian activist who was active within the country's center-right Liberal Party, posted: "Elon Musk is calling for less negativity on X. Is it about optimism? Hope? Or is it to silence debate?
"I don't always like everything Elon Musk says or does. I agree with many of his more recent postures, but I have never been a fan of the electric cars, or brain chips. But you have to take people for what they are, and we are all different. We all have different views and values."
London based lawyer Tayah Ali said: "It's clear that Elon Musk is far more calculating than most people realize.
"But he's also a bored billionaire who can afford to treat people's lives like pawns in a video game—and he's doing exactly that by treating people, nations, and ideals like meaningless pieces on a game board."
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen what impact the algorithm change unveiled by Musk will have.
At the end of December, Musk fell out with some Trump supporters, including his former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, when he spoke out passionately in favor of H-1B skilled workers visas to the United States.
Musk urged those who opposed the visas to "F*** YOURSELF in the face" prompting Bannon to label him a "toddler."
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