This seems like shift in direction from Elon Musk.
After constantly posting about the impending collapse of society, the harms of gender affirmation, the looming dangers of multiculturalism, and, in effect, the foreseeable end of life as we know it. After sharing his every observation about the ills of modern life more than 50 times a day for the past two years, Elon now says that he wants more positivity on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Algorithm tweak coming soon to promote more informational/entertaining content. We will publish the changes to @XEng.
Our goal is to maximize unregretted user-seconds. Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not unregretted user time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 4, 2025
Yes, for all of you looking to build an audience on X, an algorithm update is coming, which will put more focus on “informational/entertaining” content.
This comes after a plea from Musk last week for users to post more positive content in the app.
Please post a bit more positive, beautiful or informative content on this platform
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2024
Though, again, Musk is clearly not heeding his own advice, as he continues to post about rape gangs in the U.K., and people that he dislikes within the Republican party, while also putting the spotlight onto specific individuals for his fans to attack.
Which, given that he’s the most followed on X, then sparks broader vitriol in the app, though he has also locked down his post comments so that only paying users can actually respond to his posts.
So he is contributing in some way, I guess.
The flagged algorithm update actually sounds very similar to the changes that Meta has made to its own systems, which have reduced the reach of “political” content, in response, it says, to user feedback. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted back in 2021 that the most common Facebook and IG user complaints relate to divisive political posts taking over the in-app experience, which has prompted Meta to reassess this element.
Meta has also been repeatedly dragged in the media for its political influence, which has even led to it having to front Congress to answer for such. As a result, Meta has opted to move away from politics entirely, in favor of more light, entertaining content, primarily via Reels.
That approach stems from TikTok, which has shown that social platforms can maximize user engagement by feeding people more and more content based on their interests, and that you don’t actually need direct comments and explicit engagement to maximize revenue intake. TikTok’s approach is guided by its almighty feed algorithm, which uses entity detection across each clip to show people more of what they like, prioritizing entertainment over engagement.
And now, Meta’s also moved in that direction, by highlighting fun, entertaining video clips, that keep people in its apps for longer. Which has resulted in significant usage time gains across its apps.
So clearly it works, and now, Musk is apparently taking cues from the same, with X likely able to boost user activity if it can expose more users to more entertaining video clips in-stream.
Which makes sense, however a lot of the engagement gains on other apps actually come from videos posted by profiles that users don’t follow, which are inserted into their “For You”, algorithm-defined feeds.
X lets you default to the “Following” feed instead, which is better for users, as it gives them more choice. But it also means that they’re not going to spend as much time in the app, unless you force them into the “For you” stream.
Which is another change that I’m tipping will be on the cards at X HQ, as it looks for ways to increase engagement in the app, especially around video content.
But, really, the change isn’t a surprise, given that every other social app is looking at similar, though it is interesting that Elon, who’s used X to fuel division and angst, in order to benefit his own ambitions, is now seeking to shift against it.
I mean, he clearly has no intention of altering his own posting approach as a result, and that’ll be another angle to montor, because his personal influence in the app remains so strong, that it’ll be interesting to see how these two approaches align, or not, in practice.
Either way, if you want to maximize your X performance in 2025, it may be worth looking to more positive and/or entertaining video content, in alignment with X’s “video first” positive content shift.
Elon says that no change has been made to the algorithm as yet, and the update will be published in detail via the X Engineering team handle.
