In a recent post, the owner of the social media platform X, Elon Musk, explained how the platform works and showed its content algorithm and the major drawback.
The X algorithm, according to Musk, operates on a straightforward premise: “If you engage with content, you want to see more of that content. ” This implies that the algorithm of the platform depends on user engagement which includes likes, comments, and shares.
Musk went on to explain one of the algorithm’s key signals, which is the ability to share content. ”One of the strongest signals is if you forward X posts to friends, it assumes you like that content a lot because it takes effort to forward,” he explained. This results in similar content being repeatedly placed into users’ feed based on the assumption that the time spent to share is indicative of the user’s endorsement of the content.
But Musk also pointed out a major weakness of this thinking. The algorithm is not able to comprehend the purpose of a user’s engagement, especially if it is malevolent. “Unfortunately, if the actual reason that you forwarded the content to friends was because you were offended by it, we are currently not smart enough to understand that,” Musk said. This oversight means that users may come across more content that they do not like, only because they clicked on it due to anger.
This revelation has elicited a mixed response from users, some of whom have suggested features such as a dislike button to assist the algorithm in the understanding of users’ preferences.
