Elon Musk forces Twitter engineers to modify algorithm for selfish reasons
San Francisco, California - Elon Musk reportedly ordered his engineers to fix Twitter's algorithm so that his personal tweets are more visible to the platform's users.
This past Super Bowl Sunday, Musk sent out a tweet in support of the Philadelphia Eagles as they faced off against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Shortly after, President Joe Biden did the same, joking that he supported the Eagles simply because his wife was a fan.
According to Platformer, Biden's post did considerably better in terms of engagement than Musk's, generating over 29 million impressions compared to his nine million.
Musk reportedly deleted his tweet in frustration, and demanded answers from the company's engineers threatening to fire them if the issue wasn't "fixed."
By Monday, engineers designed a system that promotes Musk's tweets to all users by automatically bypassing any filters in place, artificially boosting his tweets to ensure they rank higher than others.
Now, users are seeing his tweets overwhelmingly in comparison to others.
The billionaire has been obsessed with his engagement numbers on the platform, going as far as firing an engineer last week after the worker told Musk that his engagement may be declining because society's interest in Musk has gone down in general.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk joked about the ordeal and tweeted a meme of one girl with a bottle of milk marked "Elon's tweets," as she forces another girl, deemed "Twitter," to drink it.
Cover photo: IMAGO / NurPhoto