The X algorithm feeds users political content – ​​whether they want it or not

The Journal created accounts on the social media platform that only signaled an affinity for non-political topics, but a majority of the posts in its For You feed were partisan or related to the election. Kamala Harris’ campaign topped the list of most viewed accounts, with a post mocking pro-Trump haters at her rally in Wisconsin reaching all of the Journal’s accounts. Ten of the other top 14 most viewed leaned right, including Trump’s, and overall, pro-Trump content appeared about twice as frequently as pro-Harris material.

“If that creep, dingbat, zero-vote, airhead Kamala Harris is able to cheat enough to win the presidency — America is over,” catturd2 wrote in a post sent to nearly all of the Journal’s newly created accounts.

X has faced turmoil since Elon Musk’s takeover in 2022, but remains a place where tens of thousands of Americans gather and receive information. What users see matters to the platform’s business, which has struggled with many large advertisers wary of controversial content. X has said that politics accounts for only a small percentage of what users see, but the journal’s analysis found that, at least for new users, political content is hard to escape.

A spokesman for X declined to respond to a detailed list of questions sent by the Journal.

To measure X’s role in recommending positions related to politics and the election, the Journal established its accounts with apolitical interests across five states, four of which are battleground states. Accounts logged in periodically and scrolled through the platform’s For You timeline, an algorithmic feed. The journal used a computer program to automatically categorize whether and how the posts were political.

Fewer than a third of the unique positions seen in the journal’s accounts were of a political nature. But X’s algorithm retweeted political posts so often that they made up about half of the total posts on the account’s For You feeds.

Musk, who has endorsed and financially supported Trump for president, says the company’s handling of content is separate from his personal views.

“The platform is neutral, but I will express the opinions I have,” he wrote in June.

The journal could not determine why X recommended any particular content. The company has released code it says powers its recommendation system. “The algorithm is open source and just tries to show people what they’re most likely to find engaging,” Musk wrote in August. Still, researchers say X hasn’t shared other information needed to get a complete picture.

The Journal account with an interest in crafts, theme parks and running got the most political content, while the account with an interest in science, music and travel saw the least.

Several factors can amplify political content on X, including user behavior, according to former X engineers. The platform’s policies under Musk dismayed many liberal users. It reinstated an estimated thousands of accounts suspended for violating policies under Twitter’s previous leadership, and included many right-wing users and Trump’s own account, @realdonaldtrump, which Twitter then removed after the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Republicans are by far the biggest political advertisers on X, according to company data, although the Journal’s analysis excluded posts labeled as ads. All in all, the Journal’s accounts saw more than 26,000 unique entries.

While the Journal’s analysis showed that X served up right-wing content more often, the Harris campaign’s No. 1 ranking shows that her campaign’s strategy of embracing virality and memes to reach a wider audience paid off.

The platform often suggested that Musk, who has the most followers of any user on X, be a new user’s first account to follow. His posts also appeared at the top of Journal accounts’ For You feeds more than any other user, including a video clip posted Oct. 17 of him campaigning with Trump earned first place on each of the Journal’s accounts.

The following Monday, Musk’s rally video was second only to a post by Alex Jones, the once-banned conspiracy theorist who predicted a landslide for Trump. “But The Desperate Deep State is planning more October surprises and Black Swan events!” said Jones’ post, viewed more than 30 million times on Oct. 24.

Musk oversees six companies, including electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX. He runs engineering at X, and former employees say changes to the platform happen at his whim. When Musk has an idea or a complaint, he has a habit of texting top engineers to get it addressed.

At one point last year, engineers boosted Musk’s posts after he complained they weren’t getting as much attention as they deserved, the Journal previously reported. Recently, Musk complained that a fraction of users were watching his live streams. Engineers then worked to give the live streams more promotion overall on the site, according to a person familiar with the effort.

Before Musk acquired Twitter in late 2022, findings from his own research suggested the platform was poised to amplify voices on the political right. Scientists couldn’t determine why, and that research department was wound down amid sweeping cutbacks shortly after Musk took over, former employees said.

Republicans now view X more favorably, with 53% of right-leaning users telling a Pew poll this year that X was mostly good for democracy — up from 17% in 2021. Left-leaning users slightly outnumbered right-leaning users on the platform last year, Pew found, 26% to 20%.

Brian Whitton contributed to this article.

Write to Jack Gillum at [email protected], Alexa Corse at [email protected] and Adrienne Tong at [email protected]