7/25/2023 0 Comments Soundbyte twitter![]() ![]() ![]() As Fortune reporter Jonathan Vanian wrote Saturday: “Like other apps built on sophisticated machine-learning tools, it’s incredibly difficult for the layman and even A.I. Musk’s commentary fails to convey the sheer magnitude of today’s social media algorithms, which filter immense amounts of consumers’ personal data and usage habits through overlapping webs of code and machine learning systems. Tech writer Nathan Baschez made a compelling case for this in a post late last week, arguing the feature could “rebuild some marginal trust in Twitter as an institution, by demanding less of it.”īut two major hurdles make open sourcing of algorithms highly unlikely: scale and money. ![]() Musk and other advocates for open sourcing envision an idyllic platform where users could choose from many algorithmic options, rather than relying on a profit-driven company’s code. That selectivity leads to suspicions about internal manipulation designed to suppress certain content, prompting calls for greater algorithmic transparency. The secretive algorithms powering TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and their peers often dictate what you see-or don’t see-on the app. In no space has this disconnect become more apparent than his focus on algorithms.įor understandable reasons, algorithms have become a catchall boogeyman for social media critics. But as with so much about Musk’s views on Twitter, the reality is far more complex than a simple sound bite. “One of the things that I believe Twitter should do is open source the algorithm, and make any changes to people’s tweets, if they’re emphasized or de-emphasized, that action should be made apparent so anyone can see that action has been taken, so there’s no behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually,” Musk said Thursday at the TED conference in Vancouver. To make this happen, he’s offered $43 billion to buy the company and take it private. In response, he proposes open sourcing Twitter’s algorithms, which would allow developers to observe how Twitter engineers control the platform and create their own competing algorithms. In Musk’s mind, these internal algorithms are subject to wholly insufficient scrutiny, giving the company immense power to manipulate and shape our public square. The same goes for his general theory about Twitter’s private algorithms, which can dictate the content we see on the platform. ![]()
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