X platform is again accused of adjusting its algorithm to increase the influence of Musk and Republican users

According to a new study published by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), it was found that Musk's posts suddenly became more popular. Elon Musk's X may have started adjusting its algorithm around the time he announced his support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, in order to increase the influence of his account and other Republican users. The authors of the study, Timothy Graham, Associate Professor of Digital Media at QUT, and Mark Andrejevic, Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Monash University, first examined Musk's engagement before and after his support for Trump in July. Around July 13, Musk's posts saw a 138% and 238% increase in views and retweets, respectively, compared to before that date. They concluded that Musk's data "exceeded the overall engagement trends observed across the entire platform." (This is not the first time someone has suggested that X has adjusted its algorithm to specifically boost Musk's account.) The researchers also found that other Republican-leaning accounts they examined experienced similar, albeit smaller, increases starting in July. The findings of this study are consistent with other investigations into potential right-wing bias in the X algorithm, as recently reported by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. However, the researchers stated that due to X's cutting off access to its academic API, they were only able to collect "relatively limited data." They added that while they did not see any signs of data loss, they "cannot guarantee that 100% of posts have been collected."