Musk says Twitter users ‘manipulated’ by algorithm; Dorsey reacts

The world’s richest person and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday (May 15) claimed that Twitter users are being “manipulated” by the algorithm but the company’s co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey disagreed.

Musk, who recently put on hold his plan of buying Twitter for $44 billion after reports of fake accounts, also suggested a solution to fix their feed on the social media platform.

Also read: Tesla, Twitter shares drop as Elon Musks legal issues grow

“Very important to fix your Twitter feed: 1. Tap home button. 2. Tap stars on upper right of screen. 3. Select “Latest tweets”. You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don’t realize. Easy to switch back & forth to see the difference,” Musk tweeted.

I’m not suggesting malice in the algorithm, but rather that it’s trying to guess what you might want to read and, in doing so, inadvertently manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realizing this is happening

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2022

While there were a lot of replies, retweets and likes for this post, Dorsey responded by saying it was designed to save time.

“it was designed simply to save you time when you are away from app for a while. pull to refresh goes back to reverse chron as well. (sic),” Dorsey said.

it was designed simply to save you time when you are away from app for a while.

pull to refresh goes back to reverse chron as well.

— jack⚡️ (@jack) May 14, 2022

After this, Musk wrote, “I’m not suggesting malice in the algorithm, but rather that it’s trying to guess what you might want to read and, in doing so, inadvertently manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realizing this is happening.”

Further, after another user commented on “manipulation”, Dorsey reiterated that the algorithm doesn’t manipulate. “no it wasn’t designed to manipulate. it was designed to catch you up and work off what you engage with. that can def have unintended consequences tho. which is why one should be able to choose if they use an algo or not, and which one. simple solution to all this. (sic),” he wrote.

no it wasn’t designed to manipulate. it was designed to catch you up and work off what you engage with. that can def have unintended consequences tho.

which is why one should be able to choose if they use an algo or not, and which one. simple solution to all this.

— jack⚡️ (@jack) May 15, 2022

Recently, Musk tweeted that he has put the buying of Twitter on hold. “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” he tweeted.

Earlier this month, in a filing at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (USSEC), Twitter said, there are less than 5% of fake or spam accounts of its monetizable daily active usage or users (mDAU) in the first quarter of 2022.