6 ms·

The X algorithm is also opensource, so you can verify before commenting..

by convery 3y ago

fragmede 3y ago
just because they open sourced it doesn't mean that's actually what they're running on it though
- chrisco255 3y ago
  It's not like he needs boosting, he was one of Twitter's top followed accounts long before he bought them. He's pretty good at getting attention.
  - latexr 3y ago
    And yet it’s not enough to curb the desire to tip the scales. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/02/report-musk-had-twitter-engineers-boost-his-tweets-after-biden-got-more-views/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/02/report-musk-had-...
- lukan 3y ago
  No idea about the current state, but the open sourcing did show, they were favoring elon: https://mashable.com/article/twitter-releases-algorithm-showing-it-tracks-elon-musk-tweets https://mashable.com/article/twitter-releases-algorithm-show... And personally I never used Twitter much, but I certainly did not follow Elon Musk when I did - yet I had to see lot's of his posts in my feed. Surely just coincidence.
  - machdiamonds 3y ago
    It's not too hard to believe it is a coincidence when the most followed person on a platform shows up in your feed, especially if you follow tech accounts.
    - internetter 3y ago
      Did you not read the article linked in the comment you're replying to?
  - maccaw 3y ago
    > they were favoring elon No, and that's not what the article says either. They were just tracking how well his tweets were doing versus others. They were not favoring Elon.
    - lukan 3y ago
      "They were just tracking how well his tweets were doing versus others. " Yeah, and adjusting it, so he comes out best. That was Musks demand, as the other article shows, that is linked inside, after a Biden tweet performed better than Musk: https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-super-bowl-joe-biden-tweet https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-super-bowl-joe-biden-... They officially boost people, who pay a little bit. Elon payed a lot. And the source is clearly not the production source and never where in this shape - otherwise why sue someone, who open sourced it? "But, the release of this source code also comes days after Twitter forced Github to take down other parts of Twitter's source code that was allegedly posted by a former employee without the company's permission. So, clearly, there's still plenty of Twitter that Musk still doesn't want us to see." Also, you probably missed that: "Zoë Schiffer of Platformer reported that Twitter actually removed part of the source code that affected the reach of Musk's and other user's tweets before releasing the algorithm to the public." Which is consistent with quite some other statements, also from Twitter itself and the fact, that the source has not been updated in 8 months. See also this HN comment and discussion about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391854 "But the underlying policies and models are almost entirely missing (there are a couple valuable components in [1]). Without those, we can't evaluate the behavior and possible effects of "the algorithm.""
  - jokethrowaway 3y ago
    Sounds a bit far fetched So changes in power users stats would also result in audience balancing? Most likely the code was used for analytics and for tracking balance; Elon was a pain in the ass and asked to have custom analytics for his account and devs eventually added him as an audience to be able to get analytics about him easily. A bit dirty but it works. Most likely the balancing code is somewhere else and it affects only republican / democrats.
threeseed 3y ago
X algorithm Github project hasn't been updated in 8 months: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm So clearly they aren't running it in production. Also they didn't open source the list of people who are being artificially boosted e.g. Elon.

The X algorithm is also opensource, so you can verify before commenting..

fragmede 3y ago

just because they open sourced it doesn't mean that's actually what they're running on it though

chrisco255 3y ago
It's not like he needs boosting, he was one of Twitter's top followed accounts long before he bought them. He's pretty good at getting attention.
- latexr 3y ago
  And yet it’s not enough to curb the desire to tip the scales. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/02/report-musk-had-twitter-engineers-boost-his-tweets-after-biden-got-more-views/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/02/report-musk-had-...
lukan 3y ago
No idea about the current state, but the open sourcing did show, they were favoring elon: https://mashable.com/article/twitter-releases-algorithm-showing-it-tracks-elon-musk-tweets https://mashable.com/article/twitter-releases-algorithm-show... And personally I never used Twitter much, but I certainly did not follow Elon Musk when I did - yet I had to see lot's of his posts in my feed. Surely just coincidence.
- machdiamonds 3y ago
  It's not too hard to believe it is a coincidence when the most followed person on a platform shows up in your feed, especially if you follow tech accounts.
  - internetter 3y ago
    Did you not read the article linked in the comment you're replying to?
- maccaw 3y ago
  > they were favoring elon No, and that's not what the article says either. They were just tracking how well his tweets were doing versus others. They were not favoring Elon.
  - lukan 3y ago
    "They were just tracking how well his tweets were doing versus others. " Yeah, and adjusting it, so he comes out best. That was Musks demand, as the other article shows, that is linked inside, after a Biden tweet performed better than Musk: https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-super-bowl-joe-biden-tweet https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-super-bowl-joe-biden-... They officially boost people, who pay a little bit. Elon payed a lot. And the source is clearly not the production source and never where in this shape - otherwise why sue someone, who open sourced it? "But, the release of this source code also comes days after Twitter forced Github to take down other parts of Twitter's source code that was allegedly posted by a former employee without the company's permission. So, clearly, there's still plenty of Twitter that Musk still doesn't want us to see." Also, you probably missed that: "Zoë Schiffer of Platformer reported that Twitter actually removed part of the source code that affected the reach of Musk's and other user's tweets before releasing the algorithm to the public." Which is consistent with quite some other statements, also from Twitter itself and the fact, that the source has not been updated in 8 months. See also this HN comment and discussion about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391854 "But the underlying policies and models are almost entirely missing (there are a couple valuable components in [1]). Without those, we can't evaluate the behavior and possible effects of "the algorithm.""
- jokethrowaway 3y ago
  Sounds a bit far fetched So changes in power users stats would also result in audience balancing? Most likely the code was used for analytics and for tracking balance; Elon was a pain in the ass and asked to have custom analytics for his account and devs eventually added him as an audience to be able to get analytics about him easily. A bit dirty but it works. Most likely the balancing code is somewhere else and it affects only republican / democrats.

threeseed 3y ago

X algorithm Github project hasn't been updated in 8 months: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm So clearly they aren't running it in production. Also they didn't open source the list of people who are being artificially boosted e.g. Elon.