“People will find a lot of stupid things, but we will fix the problems as soon as we find out!” Musk tweeted.
San Francisco:
Twitter boss Elon Musk said on Friday he will release his long-secret algorithm for recommending tweets.
In one of his own tweets, Musk said the code used to recommend posts to users would become “open source” by the end of March.
“People will find a lot of stupid things, but we will fix the problems as soon as we find out!” Musk tweeted.
“Providing code transparency will be incredibly awkward at first, but it should lead to a rapid improvement in the quality of recommendations.”
Musk argued that Twitter uses a recommendation algorithm that is too complex and not fully understood within the company.
“We’re developing a simplified way to deliver more engaging tweets, but this work is still a work in progress,” Musk said.
Making the code open source means developers, including aspiring competitors, will be able to make their own tweaks to the algorithm, according to the Software Ecosystem Foundation.
Since billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter in October, the platform has suffered outages, layoffs and seen advertisers flee over a lack of content moderation.
But so far, with no major replacement for Twitter, global leaders, politicians, celebrities and corporations have no choice but to continue communicating through the platform.
After several rounds of layoffs in which more than two-thirds of its staff were laid off, Twitter has a reduced workforce and is said to be vulnerable to outages, disinformation and harmful content.
Musk has tried to wean Twitter off of ads and promote subscriptions as a new way to generate revenue — an idea that Meta is also testing — but so far, the results have been disappointing.
Facebook owner Meta revealed earlier this month that it was developing a new “text-sharing” social media network, a project seen as a potential rival to the embattled Twitter.
“We’re exploring an independent, decentralized social network to share text updates,” Meta, which also owns Instagram, said in a brief emailed statement.
“We believe in the opportunity to create a single space where creators and public figures can share their interests in a timely manner,” the statement added.
(Aside from the title, this story is unedited by NDTV staff and published via a syndicated feed.)
