On March 24, a few weeks before he promised to buy Twitter, Elon Musk posted a survey on social media: "Twitter's algorithm should be open source," he wrote, with ways for users to vote "yes" or "no."
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Some Twitter technology is already open source, which means it is publicly available for anyone to view, reuse, and use for other purposes. But what Musk was asking, in fact, is that computer rules to determine what you see in your Twitter feed (TWTR) should be public, too. More than a million votes were cast at the close of voting, with the largest number of votes being "yes" (82.7%).
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The implications of Musk's proposal and voting took on a new dimension last week, after Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO announced they had promised to buy all the Twitter shares they already had in a deal that could cost the company virtually. $ 41 billion. On Friday, the Twitter board announced the so-called "poison pill" that could make it difficult for Musk to find a company.
When the agreement was passed, Musk said his intention was to "unlock" Twitter's "amazing power", but his suggestions for some changes in how to do so were unclear. The main focus has been to strengthen free speech on the platform, and his proposal for algorithms is the basis for that effort.
Hours after Musk made his promise to buy Twitter, he repeated the idea of finding open Twitter channels during his appearance on stage at the TED conference in Vancouver. He also said it should be clear to users if any actions taken by Twitter affect what is on Twitter - such as decisions to amplify or not to emphasize tweets.
In this way, he explained to TED, "there is no form of deception behind the scenes, either by algorithm or by hand." Members of the TED audience clapped loudly in response. (Twitter adds labels to tweets for a number of reasons, such as if the post contains misleading information or if the post violates social networking rules but is kept available after it has been determined to "benefit the public.")
Musk is not alone in calling technology forums clear with their algorithms. After the 2021 release of Facebook Papers, which showed how algorithms can spread divisions and lead users down into dangerous rabbit pits, there has been a re-examination of the algorithms that continue to dominate our lives. Additionally, Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey has called for more to give users control over social media, including responding to Musk's election by quoting tweeting in his comments: "Choosing which algorithm to use (or. No) should be open. everyone. ”
Musk is also good at referring to algorithms that support the company as an integral part of what makes Twitter, well, Twitter. After all, algorithms, which are their simple set of instructions, support a wide range of computer-based products and services. They are used to find out which tweets you see on the people you follow on the platform and show you the tweets from others that Twitter thinks you would like to see, based on many things like your social media accounts, how popular they are. tweet, and how other people you know interact with the tweet. They are also used to crop photos that people post, as well as to remove hateful content. And if you choose to view the tweets in the order that they were recently posted on Twitter, that uses an algorithm, too.
But publicly making algorithms that shape what you see on Twitter will not in itself do much to make Twitter a more transparent company, according to clever design experts and open source software experts. While it ultimately helps to address the distrust that critics have in enforcing Twitter content, going to court can also create a new set of Twitter risks.
The limitations of Musk's program
Even those who can understand the code that goes into the algorithm do not really understand how it works. Consider, for example, that it often goes beyond the basic definition from technology companies about how their algorithmic systems work and what they are used for. The people who build these programs do not always know why they reach their conclusions, which is why they are often referred to as “black boxes.”
A new set of Twitter dangers
Apart from the success of opening Twitter algorithms, there is also the question of, what exactly, what will be released in the community and the code.
If Twitter were to open a source just a machine learning algorithm to determine what is and is not allowed on the platform, for example, but not the training data used to inform that algorithm, it would "mean nothing," said Allison Randal, a board member. Software Freedom Conservancy and the Open Infrastructure Foundation are sticky when considering training data, however.
Performing Twitter algorithms publicly will not lead to any changes to Twitter, however. Users will not be able to make any changes to the code that runs the social network unless Twitter has enabled such actions (such as sending changes to all users, or by allowing individual users futz with a code that governs their personal accounts).
