For a while now, researchers have been trying to prove that X (the platform formerly known as Twitter ) has an algorithmic bias for conservative content. Indeed, ever since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022, right-wing accounts have run rampant on the site—so much so that onlookers suspect those accounts are being actively promoted. A pair of researchers now claim to have collected evidence that the site is putting its thumb on the scale.
They also say that promotion likely began on a very specific date: the day a would-be assassin took a shot at Donald Trump during a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In a working paper entitled “ A computational analysis of potential algorithmic bias on platform X during the 2024 US election ,” researchers with the Queensland University of Technology in Australia argue that there is evidence that the microblogging site began promoting conservative content to users in the months before Americans cast their ballots. Researchers used “statistical models to rigorously compare engagement patterns before and after a key change point.
” The research was designed to determine whether prominent conservative accounts—including Musk’s—were being algorithmically favored by the platform. According to researchers, there is evidence that’s the case, and they also claim to have pinpointed the exact date that X began to see a surge in engagement with right-wing content. “The analysis reveals a structural engagement shift around .