US EditionTurning on the ‘for you’ feed on X shifted political opinions, but turning it off did not
A seven-week experiment with nearly 5,000 U.S. users found X’s algorithm increased conservative content exposure by 20% and reduced traditional news by 58%, shifting political views rightward.
9 Articles
9 Articles
An experiment with active users of X in the United States found that the platform’s recommendation algorithm can modify political attitudes. The study, entitled The political effects of X’s feed algorithm and published on Wednesday, February 18 in Nature magazine, concludes that activating algorithmic feed increased interaction and shifted opinions to more conservative positions on public policy issues and conjuncture. The research took place fo…
This right-wing social network isn't just biased – it's actively radicalizing users
A new study published today in Nature has found that X’s algorithm – the hidden system or “recipe” that governs which posts appear in your feed and in which order – shifts users’ political opinions in a more conservative direction.Led by Germain Gauthier from Bocconi University in Italy, it is a rare, real-world randomised experimental study on a major social media platform. And it builds on a growing body of research that shows how these platfo…
One Study Shows that the X Algorithm Prioritizes Content Related to Conservative Political Positions
The research was carried out in 2023, six months after Elon Musk acquired the social network
Social networks often function as a space that society uses to inform itself. X (formerly Twitter) is still one of the platforms with the most weight in that sense. Research with 4,965 profiles aimed to see what kind of speeches amplified the platform. After seven weeks of analysis, the authors concluded that the algorithmic feed of the network, now owned by Elon Musk, tends to boost more right-wing content and encourage users to follow conserva…
Turning on the ‘for you’ feed on X shifted political opinions, but turning it off did not
A field experiment shows that turning on the algorithmic feed on the social-media platform X in 2023 shifted political opinions to the right, whereas turning it off had no effect on political attitudes. The algorithmic feed led users to follow more right-leaning accounts, which they continued following when the algorithm was off. Users started and continued following right-wing accounts even after switching back to a chronological feed.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left
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