Elon Musk Comments On Twitter De-boosting, Says It's 'Weird': What You Should Know About This Feature

Elon Musk, who has made an offer for Twitter, Inc. TWTR, on Sunday engaged in a conversation on the platform regarding de-boosting.

What Happened: When Cleantechnica writer Johnna Crider inquired on Twitter why the platform is de-boosting many of Musk's supporters when they reply to him, the Tesla, Inc. TSLA CEO reasoned that it could be due to the algorithm that is "not exactly genius," as opposed by intentional de-boosting by people.

I suspect that this is because the "algorithm" is not exactly genius vs intentional deboosting by people

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2022

Reply de-boosting suggests that replies to tweets are hidden behind a "Show More" button for accounts that do not follow the person who replied. Sometimes the entire social communities may be de-boosted, making it possible to interact only with each other.

When Tesla investor and influencer James Stephenson pointed out that Twitter is running "tenacious D… boosting," sharing a screenshot of the check he ran, Musk commented that it is weird.

Tesmanian reporter Eva Fox joined in by making an observation. "By deleting the tweet, on which the algorithm triggered, the ban is removed from the account. But after replying to someone tweet the ban is activated again," she said.

India-based software developer @PPathole, who communicates with Musk on Twitter very often, then wondered how the tweet that triggered the algorithm resulting in de-boosting could be found. He followed up with a reply, saying this is where an open source algorithm would be really helped. Musk concurred with it.

Yes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2022

Related Link: Week's Tesla Stock Rally Puts Elon Musk Back Firmly In $200B Club

Why It's Important: Musk's deal to buy Twitter had the algorithm as the starting point. Ahead of disclosing his passive stake and then announcing his offer, Musk ran a Twitter poll, soliciting views on whether the social media platform's algorithm should be open source.

He echoed a similar idea at a Ted conference in Vancouver later. Musk suggested that it should be made clear to a user when Twitter takes any action that impacts what he tweets.

Incidentally, after successfully negotiating the Twitter deal, Musk came back and said that the deal is on hold due to his disagreement with the way the platform calculated the spam account count.

Musk, however, showed he is positive on completing the deal by announcing last week he is increasing his financial commitment toward the purchase.

Twitter closed Friday's session 1.64% higher at $40.70, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Created with an image from Ministerio Das Comanicacoes on Flickr