On July 13, in the aftermath of a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur and owner of Twitter (then known as X), took to the platform to share his thoughts with his massive audience of over 200 million followers.
While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I recommend rephrasing to ensure a more objective tone. Here’s an alternative:
Elon Musk’s persistent attempts to influence the outcome of future US presidential elections persist. Over the past three months, he has contributed substantially to the political action committee known as America PAC, which is actively promoting Trump’s interests.
However, our new analysis (in the form of a preprint) suggests that Musk may also be exerting influence through additional, more sophisticated means as well. Despite the platform’s increasing opacity, it remains challenging to confirm this definitively.
Immediately following Elon Musk’s endorsement of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, a strikingly unusual surge in engagement occurred on his Twitter account. Suddenly, the visibility of his posts skyrocketed, boasting significantly higher view counts, retweet rates, and like tallies relative to other prominent political profiles on the platform.
Does this raise suspicions that Elon Musk may have manipulated Twitter’s algorithm to boost the visibility of his tweets before the 2024 US presidential election? The revised text reads: It also highlights the problems surrounding the current global regulation of social media platforms like X.
Not the primary time
Elon Musk’s history of adjusting Twitter’s algorithms has been marked by a desire to maximize the reach of his personal content.
In the final year, a team of approximately 80 engineers worked tirelessly to develop algorithms that could optimize and increase the posting frequency. The social media frenzy surrounding this celebrity’s tweet celebrating the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl triumph quickly went awry when it failed to garner more engagement than a similar post from President Joe Biden.
Musk seemingly confirmed the situation by posting an image of two girls, one labeled “Elon’s tweets” being forced to bottle-feed another, labeled “Twitter”.
As the US presidential election approaches, we examine Elon Musk’s engagement metrics against those of other prominent political accounts to determine if he has replicated this feat once more. covers the period from January 1, 2024, to October 25, 2024.
The contrasting political profiles that provided a framework for analysis include those of conservative pundits Jack Posobiec, Tucker Carlson, and Donald Trump Jr. The analysis also scrutinized online profiles from diverse ends of the political spectrum, including those of US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, US Senator Bernie Sanders, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
A sudden and important enhance
Since July, engagement with Elon Musk’s Twitter account has experienced a notable and significant surge.
View counts for his posts surged by a staggering 138%, while retweets skyrocketed by an impressive 238% and likes enjoyed a notable 186% increase.
Meanwhile, various prominent political analyses of X observed significantly enhanced engagement metrics: a 57% surge in views, a 152% explosion in retweets, and a 130% boost in likes.
While engagement rates surged for all accounts following July, Elon Musk’s metrics revealed an extraordinary spike, particularly evident in retweet and like activity.
Since July, a notable disparity has emerged in the online presence of conservative and right-wing versus progressive and left-wing social media accounts, with the former experiencing significantly greater visibility for their posts.
Despite seeking feedback from X regarding the analysis, no response was received prior to the deadline.
Without direct access to a corporation’s inner workings, it is impossible to verify with certainty whether changes to its algorithm-driven content curation system are indeed amplifying the reach of its owner’s posts. Since Elon Musk’s takeover, the platform has significantly curtailed its offerings for researchers. The findings suggest that limitations existed regarding the amount of information we were able to collect for this study.
Notwithstanding this, tweets from Republicans are significantly more likely to go viral, garnering billions of additional views compared to those from Democrats. Revealed data shows that newcomers to the platform are bombarded with a heavy dose of political content, overwhelmingly skewed in favour of Trump.
Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform, it has become increasingly welcoming to high-profile users, including those previously banned for disseminating harmful and misleading information.
The parable of neutrality
Research suggests that Elon Musk’s prominent social media presence reinforces his own political ideology.
Elon Musk, with business interests heavily invested in government contracts, has loudly and financially backed President Trump’s agenda through a very public display of support. According to sources, the influential entrepreneur has emerged as one of Donald Trump’s key benefactors. Additionally, he played a key role in promoting Donald Trump’s presidential bid by authoring a series of tweets that effectively marketed the candidate’s campaign.
Elon Musk could potentially give away $1 million daily to randomly selected registered voters. This strategy, which reportedly aims to boost voter registration among supporters in pivotal states,
Musk’s bold moves have shattered the illusion of social media giants like X being neutral. Given that he had previously optimized X’s algorithm to boost the reach of his posts, it would be surprising if he wasn’t subtly biasing the platform towards Trump, with whom he strongly identifies as “.
Despite their length, social media platforms have long enjoyed impunity for the information they selectively disseminate to users’ feeds. Governments must reassess their approach to governing the oligarchic control over our digital lives, where a select few tech moguls dictate terms.
