On Saturday night Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk took to Twitter to warn his followers that they are “being manipulated” by the social media site’s algorithm.
Musk is in the process of buying Twitter, and he shared with his followers that they need to make a switch to their feed if they haven’t already.
Twitter offers users two different feeds, one called “Latest Tweets,” which shows you tweets curated from Twitter’s algorithm, and “Home,” which shows you tweets from the accounts you follow in the order they are tweeted.
Musk did clarify that he was not suggesting Twitter was maliciously attempting to give users content but instead wanted to offer a different way to use the site.
“I’m not suggesting malice in the algorithm, but rather that it’s trying to guess what you might want to read and, in doing so, inadvertently manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realizing this is happening,” Musk tweeted.
Musk first made headlines for wanting to buy Twitter last month and has continued to be a popular topic. However, on Friday, he said the deal was “on hold” after a report that bot accounts on the site were responsible for less than 5% of users.
This has long been a target of Musk’s commentary on Twitter and one of the reasons he cited for deciding to make the purchase. But, he has since tweeted that he is still committed to acquiring the company.
Musk also received criticism last week when he announced that he would allow former President Donald Trump to make a return to Twitter after the purchase. However, Trump has shared he is focused on his own site, “Truth Social.”
Musk’s offer to buy Twitter sits at around $45 billion. Since the company’s board accepted it, he has been extremely critical of how the company is run, even taking shots at their headquarters location, saying being in San Francisco gives them a left bias.
Either way, numerous high-profile accounts have lost an increasing number of followers in the weeks since the announcement was made, as many have decided not to use Twitter if Musk owns it.
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