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Blogger Ben Werdmuller has discussed an article in Nature about the political impact of the algorithm(s) used by X (formerly known as Twitter). The gist is that the use of the algorithms against X's users tends to shift about 5% of them in a specific direction. That's more than enough to tip an election one way or another especially since the damage seems persistent and lasts even after exposure ceases.
Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.
It should be added that the effect has already been seen in multiple countries. For example, the elections in Turkey were affected with outright censorship, within X. And the impact from the CPP's Bytedance's Tiktok is likely even more severe, not to mention multiple experiments in manipulation in Meta's properties like Facebook.
Journal Reference: Gauthier, G., Hodler, R., Widmer, P. et al. The political effects of X's feed algorithm. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2
Previously:
(2026) How Screwed is Generation Alpha, and the Generations Which Will Depend on Them?
(2025) European Union Orders X to Hand Over Algorithm Documents
(2024) Six Months Ago NPR Left Twitter. The Effects Have Been Negligible
(2023) Utah Sues Tiktok For Getting Children 'Addicted' To Its Algorithm
(2022) Leaked Documents Reveal Instagram Was Pushing Girls Towards Content That Harmed Mental Health
(2022) Musk Buying Twitter Is Not About Freedom of Speech
... and more
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 27, @09:17PM
I was going to say: I signed up for a Twitter account back in antiquity, never really "got it" but I'd check it out occasionally.
Then it became Xitter. Meh.
Then it went full-tilt whatever it is - and I deliberately shut the account.
Then Google started sending me "news" from X, and I started telling Google "Show me no more stories from this source" - HUNDREDS OF TIMES. Google won't block X as a whole - whatever happened to "Don't be Evil"? - they only allow you to block individual authors on X, then they send you ever more targeted "sincere" content from authors on X they "know you will like" but every opening of an X story comes with a prompt to install the X app... Get a CLUE!
It's the same with AT&T salespeople, the double barreled brush off the minute they speak the words A T and... "yes, I know who you are, you should know who I am by now, mark me in your contact form: Hostile, strongly opposed to doing any business whatsoever with AT&T or any affiliates. Take me off all your sales and calling lists, add me to your "Do not calls" - consider this notice that continued harassment may and likely will be pursued for damages in small claims court at the going rate of ... $500 per instance last time I checked." If they persist, and some do, cut them off again "let me go get a pen and paper ... leisurely ... yes, would you please write down your name, the name of your supervisor and any other pertinent identifying information?" Pulls out cellphone, starts video recording. They haven't come back for more than 10 years after that round.
Nobody makes anybody log on to X. Similarly, I haven't quite closed my Facebook account - there's a group in there, only in there, that I occasionally want to communicate with, I've been in there once in the past 14 months.
If everybody who "hates Xitter" would stop using Xitter, it would die faster.
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