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Twitter may be artificially boosting CEO Elon Musk’s tweets. Platformer reports that the company’s engineers have deployed a code that allows tweets from Musk to bypass all of Twitter’s filters. At one point, his tweets were reportedly being boosted by a factor of 1,000.
Musk’s tweets were all over Twitter a few days back. Whether you followed the multi-billionaire or not, you must have been bombarded by his tweets on the “For You” feed. While the Twitter CEO didn’t explain what was happening, he acknowledged that it was not normal. He blamed the “algorithm” for it and said that the company is working to fix the issue.
However, Platformer is saying something else. According to the publication’s sources, Musk was unhappy with the engagement on his tweets lately. Particularly, his tweet about the Super Bowl got less engagement than President Joe Biden’s. According to the report, Biden’s tweet generated nearly 29 million impressions, while Musk saw just over nine million impressions. He reportedly deleted the tweet in frustration and went tearing into Twitter engineers.
According to the source, Musk threatened to fire the engineers unless they make his tweets get more impressions. The same publication previously reported that the Twitter CEO fired an engineer who suggested that his tweets are generating fewer impressions because people aren’t interested in them anymore. Of course, no one likes to lose their job abruptly. As such, around 80 Twitter employees started investigating potential issues with Musk’s tweet impressions.
Twitter allegedly created a way to artificially boost Musk’s tweets
Twitter engineers contemplated various possibilities. Musk could have been generating fewer impressions because many people blocked or muted him. Not everyone has been a fan of the way he handled the social network after acquiring it in late October last year.
They also checked if there was a technical fault. Since Twitter usually boosts tweets from users whose contents are popular among both followers and non-followers, Musk’s tweets shouldn’t have drastically lost impressions.
After evaluating all possibilities, they came up with a solution. The engineers developed and deployed a code that ensured that Twitter’s filters didn’t block Musk’s tweets from reaching anyone. Unless you have blocked or muted Musk, you will see his tweets on your “For You” feed.
This artificial boost is still active, though not by a factor of 1,000 anymore. “Musk’s handful of tweets Tuesday reported around 43 million impressions, which is on the high end of his recent average,” the report states.
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