X owner Elon Musk said his social media platform will launch an “algorithm tweak” to tamp down rampant negativity on the site.
Musk — who fashioned himself a “free-speech absolutist” when he bought the site formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion on 2022 — said the new algorithm will push more informational and entertaining content.
“Our goal is to maximize unregretted user-seconds,” Musk wrote in a post on X on Friday. “Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not unregretted user time.”
He added that X is also working on ways to allow users to adjust their content feeds so they are more personalized.
An X representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some X users accused Musk of hypocrisy after years of the mogul arguing for unbridled free speech on social media platforms, and questioned how X will deem which posts are “negative.”
“This is definitely interesting timing, given the fact that X essentially rewarded negativity when Biden was president, but is shifting to penalize negativity under Trump,” Ed Krassenstein, a Florida-based artificial intelligence expert with more than one million followers on X, said in a post.
Other users expressed concern that topics in news articles can often be deemed “negative,” and that the new algorithm could silence important posts.
Musk — who has become a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump — has reinstated the accounts of several controversial figures on the basis of free speech.
He tossed out a nearly two-year-old ban of Trump’s account – which was suspended after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots – after polling social media users on whether the former president should be allowed back on the platform.
More than 15 million people voted on the Twitter poll, with those backing Trump’s return to X taking 51.8% of the vote.
“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk said in a post in 2022. The Latin phrase means “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
Musk, the richest person in the world with a net worth of $423.9 billion according to Forbes, has been criticized for taking his “free speech” too far – and X has suffered the consequences.
Major brands fled the platform and halted their lucrative advertisements in 2023 after Musk endorsed an antisemitic post.
An X account had posted that Jewish communities were pushing “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them” and “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.”
Musk replied: “You have said the actual truth.”
IBM, Apple and Disney were quick to pause their spending as some of their ads began to appear next to antisemitic posts on the platform.
At the time, X faced a potential $75 million in advertising revenue losses, according to The New York Times.
In November 2023, Musk hit back at the firms: “If someone’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f— yourself,” Musk said.
He then added: “Including Bob,” an apparent reference to Disney boss Bob Iger, who was in the audience.
Disney and other entertainment giants reportedly resumed their ad spending on the platform last year.
