Twitter will make its algorithm for tweets public

Elon Musk has announced that Twitter will make public the algorithm used to recommend tweets to each user, a transparent approach he has long advocated without putting it into practice.

The Twitter algorithm will be revealed

“Twitter will open source all the code used to recommend tweets on March 31”, said Elon Musk. He adds :

Our algorithm is overly complex and not fully understood internally. People will discover a lot of silly things, but we’ll fix issues as soon as they’re discovered!

We’re developing a simplified approach to serving more compelling tweets, but it’s still a work in progress. This approach will also be open source.

Code transparency will be incredibly embarrassing at first, but it should lead to a quick improvement in the quality of recommendations. More importantly, we hope to earn your trust.

Opening the service’s black box was one of Elon Musk’s stated motivations for buying Twitter last year, as was the company’s potential and the defense of a more absolute vision of freedom of expression. But his first four months at the head of the network were above all marked by waves of massive and abrupt layoffs, the flight of many advertisers, the somewhat wobbly launch of the subscription with certification and a few technical breakdowns.

Regarding the algorithm, the transparency measure could appease authorities and legislators who want to know how the platform works. Making the code public also means that other developers or potential rivals could use it.

So far, no major alternative to Twitter has emerged. Most elected politicians, organizations and personalities still use it to communicate.