On Tuesday, Twitter users wondered why their timelines were displaying so many tweets from Elon Musk. Now, a new report provides a reason: Elon Musk was upset that his tweet about the Super Bowl got fewer views than one from U.S. President Joe Biden.
The Twitter CEO flew his private jet from the Super Bowl in Phoenix to the Bay Area Sunday night to complain about his tweets relatively low engagement, reports Platformer, a newsletter from technology journalists Zoë Schiffer and Casey Newton. After Musk ordered his employees to fix the problem, Twitter engineers let Musks tweets bypass the platforms algorithms for determining the best content for users, landing Musks posts atop users feeds.
Bidens tweet about the Super Bowlin which the president cheered for the Philadelphia Eagles due to his wifes ties to the citycurrently has 29 million views. Elon Musk deleted his tweet supporting the Eagles after they lost, but the tweet received approximately 9 million views, according to Platformer.
On Tuesday, users on Twitter reported seeing more tweets from Musk on the platforms For You tab, which displays tweets to users according to their interests, including from accounts they dont follow. (The platforms Following tab only shows tweets, in reverse chronological order, from accounts the user follows).
The flood of Musk tweets was a deliberate consequence of changes to Twitters algorithm, Platformer reports. The company ordered 80 engineers to work on boosting Musks engagement; that team allowed the CEOs tweets to skirt safeguards that prevent one users tweets from dominating someones entire feed.
(Musk first joked about his tweets overwhelming peoples accounts, then said Twitter will make adjustments to its systems.)
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company no longer has a communications department to handle media inquiries.
Last Thursday, Platformer reported that Musk is increasingly concerned about his tweets low engagement. At a meeting to discuss reasons why, one of the companys top engineers tried to explain that interest in Musk was declining in general, using a chart from Google Trends tracking searches for Elon Musk as evidence.
Musk reportedly fired the engineer on the spot.
Musks deputies then told engineers that theyd be fired if they didnt solve the problem of Musks slumping engagement, acoording to Platformer.
Elon Musk has one of the platforms most followed accounts, with 128 million followers. By comparison, Bidens official Twitter account has 29.5 million followers.
The U.S. president has long irritated Musk, who believes the White House downplays Teslas record in manufacturing electric vehicles in favor of legacy automakers like GM.
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