The New ‘Transparent’ Twitter Isn’t Very Transparent

For the past decade or so, the social internet has been largely controlled by secretive algorithms. Designed by tech companies to capture attention and drive engagement, they determine which posts end up in your feeds and which sink like a rock, never to be seen again. These algorithms play a role in polarization, rocketing ordinary people to overnight fame, and the spread of extreme, violence-provoking content. They generally operate as black boxes, hidden from academic researchers and the public, despite a push from notable figures in tech and politics to make them more transparent.

But last week, the world got handed a tiny flashlight and the chance to peek inside. For the first time, a major U.S. social-media company, Twitter, posted part of its algorithm for anyone to see. It made public for its “For You” page, and published from its engineering team explaining how the recommendation system broadly works. The company hailed the move as the first step toward a “.” In a Twitter Spaces conversation, the platform’s CEO, Elon Musk, said the goal was to build trust with users: How else, he asked, would you know if the algorithm was “subject to manipulation in ways that you don’t understand,” whether that be from code errors or state actors?