Tobi Oluwatoyin
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, announced on Friday that he would reveal the long-secret algorithm for suggesting tweets.
By the end of March, the code that recommends the posts to users will be made “open source,” according to Musk, who also made the announcement in a tweet.
“People will find a lot of silly things, but we’ll fix problems as soon as we find them!” Tweeted by Musk.
At first, providing code transparency will be extremely embarrassing, but it should quickly improve the quality of recommendations.
According to Musk, the Twitter recommendation algorithm is overly complex and not fully understood within the company.
Musk said, “We’re working on a simplified approach to serve more compelling tweets, but it’s still in the early stages.
According to a foundation for the software ecosystem, making the code open source would allow developers, including aspirant competitors, to customize the algorithm.
The social media site has experienced outages, layoffs, and the exodus of advertisers due to the lack of content moderation since billionaire Musk took control of it in October.
However, there are currently no significant Twitter alternatives, leaving world leaders, politicians, celebrities, and businesses with little choice but to continue using the platform for communication.
Twitter is reportedly operating with a skeleton staff after several rounds of layoffs saw more than two thirds of employees let go, making it susceptible to outages as well as false information and harmful content.
The results of Musk’s efforts to wean Twitter off of advertising and promote subscriptions as a new revenue stream have been disappointing thus far; Meta is also testing this idea.
Early this month, Meta, the company that owns Facebook, announced that it is developing a brand-new “text sharing” social media platform that could pose a threat to Twitter.
According to Meta, which also owns Instagram, “We’re exploring a standalone, decentralized social network for sharing text updates,” in a brief email statement.
The statement continued, “We believe there is a need for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.
