A Washington Post analysis showed that Twitter’s recommendation algorithm highlights extremist accounts, some of which claim to be Nazis, to certain users.
“Show tweets you want to see.” Twitter’s promise when setting up its “For You” feed was taken at face value. So much so that an analysis of Washington Post reveals that the social network’s recommendation algorithm integrates extremist accounts spreading hate speech.
Identified as extremes
The American newspaper realized that a user could be offered publications from accounts that he did not follow. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. Except that in some cases, the tweets in question come from accounts disseminating racist or provocative remarks. Among them, several are part of the former banished from the platform that Elon Musk reinstated in favor of a general amnesty.
These recommendations seem to be activated when a user follows accounts identified as extreme, in particular included in the list of the association Southern Poverty Law Center, which promotes pedagogy and tolerance.
By creating new accounts, the media was able to verify this. As soon as he started following a dozen users deemed to be extremist, a quote accompanied by a portrait of Hilter appeared in the recommendations of the “For you” thread. During their analysis, publications from an account claiming to be Nazi were also highlighted.
Contrary to Elon Musk’s promise
These revelations conflict with the words of Elon Musk. Shortly after the takeover of Twitter at the end of October, the new owner assured that negative content would not be highlighted.
“You won’t find these tweets unless you look for them specifically, which is no different from the rest of the internet,” Elon Musk said at the time.
The Washington Post analysis comes as Twitter has planned to only feature paying users of the platform. Thus, only accounts that subscribed to Twitter Blue could have hoped to appear in the “For You” feed. But faced with the discontent, Elon Musk took a step back. He assured that accounts already followed by a user will be able to integrate the recommendation tab. And this whether they are subscribed to Twitter Blue or not.
