Elon Musk changed Twitter algorithms to influence US election

Elon Musk came out as an ardent Trump supporter during the US election campaign. He has used his money and influence to support the Republican Party. But Musk is also said to have specifically changed the algorithms of his platform X (formerly Twitter) in order to influence the US election.

Elon Musk has officially supported Donald Trump in the election campaign. He reportedly invested over $200 million to help Trump get re-elected. After his victory, the US President-elect promised the tech billionaire a government position.

Musk is expected to head a newly created department, the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), and reduce costs within the government. His influence is likely to continue to grow. Elon Musk had already repeatedly invoked this in order to steer things in his favor – apparently also in the wake of the US election.

Elon Musk changed X algorithms to influence US election

Even before he took over Twitter, Elon Musk regularly caused a stir with tweets that caused the prices of certain stocks or cryptocurrencies to skyrocket. The accusation: targeted manipulation. But to what extent is Musk using the platform for his political interests after taking it over at the end of October 2022?

Timothy Graham from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and Mark Andrejevic from Monash University in Melbourne also asked themselves this question. A recent research paper by the scientists suggests that the X algorithms were adjusted in favor of Elon Musk and some Republican accounts during the US election.

While Graham and Andrejevic acknowledge that the results are preliminary, they emphasize that they raise important questions about the potential impact of algorithmic adjustments on public discourse and the “neutrality” of social media platforms as information carriers.

In phase one of their study, the researchers focused on Musk's personal account, while in phase two they compared Republican and Democratic accounts.

Elon Musk's X account: Noticeable increase in reach in the wake of the US election

The researchers used a special statistical method called CUSUM (Cumulative Sum) to determine whether Elon Musk's account was boosted in the wake of the US election. The result: Shortly after Musk publicly admitted that he wanted to support Donald Trump, the visibility of his X posts increased by 138.7 percent.

Compared to the base views of other accounts, Elon Musk's account would have previously had a significantly higher number of base views. According to the researchers, the sudden increase in range is no coincidence. Because they were able to prove that this trend remained relatively constant even after July 13, 2024. On that day it became public that Elon Musk wanted to support Donald Trump in the election campaign.

Timothy Graham and Mark Andrejevic therefore conclude that this could indicate the “possibility of algorithmic prioritization or bias that positions Musk’s content favorably in terms of on-platform visibility and user engagement.”

Pro-Republican bias on X

In the second phase of their study, the researchers compared numerous Republican and Democratic accounts to identify any irregularities. To do this, they evaluated 56,184 posts that were published between January 1st and October 25th, 2024 using a statistical tool.

The result: One day after it became public that Elon Musk wanted to support Donald Trump in the election campaign, the study authors noticed “a platform-wide change”. However, this is not necessarily due to a direct adjustment of the algorithms of individual Republican accounts.

However, according to the researchers, the results show that there is a pro-Republican bias on X – even before Elon Musk made it public that he wanted to support Donald Trump in the election campaign. It is possible that the increase in Musk's personal account led to an increased reach of Republican accounts.

X is not neutral

Joe Bak-Coleman, researcher at the Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior at the University of Konstanz, read the preprint study from Australia. Opposite the online portal Techpolicy he says:

The authors highlight a compelling pattern and an intriguing explanation for why it occurred. The authors are the first to admit that, given the limited amount of data, it is difficult to determine with certainty whether this was intentional or a quirk of a biased algorithm.

According to Bak-Coleman, it must be publicly apparent “that X is not ideologically neutral when it comes to the design, moderation and capabilities of the platform.”

Also interesting: