The X platform is once again accused of adjusting algorithms to enhance the influence of Musk and Republican users

On November 18th, according to a new study published by Queensland University of Technology (QUT), it was found that Musk's posts suddenly became more popular. Elon Musk's X may begin adjusting its algorithm to increase the influence of his account and other Republican users before and after he announced his support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The authors of the study, Timothy Graham, Associate Professor of Digital Media at Queensland University of Technology, and Mark Andrejevic, Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Monash University, first examined Musk's involvement before and after supporting Trump in July. Starting around July 13th, Musk's posts received 138% and 238% more views and shares than before that date. They concluded that Musk's data "exceeds the overall engagement trend observed across the entire platform. (This paper is not the first time that someone has suggested that X adjust its algorithm specifically to boost Musk's account.) The researchers also found that other Republican leaning accounts they examined also showed similar boosts from July, albeit to a lesser extent. The results of this study are similar to other recent surveys reported by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post regarding potential right-wing bias in the X algorithm. However, researchers have stated that due to the X platform cutting off access to its academic API, they can only collect "relatively small amounts of data". They added that although they did not see any signs of data loss, "we cannot guarantee that 100% of the posts have been collected