Social network company Twitter has been going through some substantial changes ever since Tesla’s CEO bought the company for $44 billion in October last year.
In what is likely to be the platform’s biggest change so far, Musk has announced that Twitter’s algorithm could be made open-sourced from next week, a major move that could potentially alter how the company is run.
Musk first took to Twitter to announce the news in response to another user’s tweet that suggested the CEO make his platform open source.
Prepare to be disappointed at first when our algorithm is made open source next week, but it will improve rapidly!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 21, 2023
Twitter going open source
The move to make the algorithm open source means that just about anyone can access, inspect and even scrutinise Twitter’s algorithm and pitch their ideas to developers on how the platform can be improved or even use the algorithm to develop their own social media applications.
The platform’s founder Jack Dorsey said in a tweet last year that Twitter’s algorithm should have been open, adding that his “biggest regret is that it [Twitter] became a company,” adding that the platform should have been a protocol that’s not solely owned by one individual.
The biggest issue and my biggest regret is that it became a company.
— jack (@jack) August 25, 2022
Musks plans
Making Twitter’s algorithm open source could also put the social platform in collision with current competitors such as Mastodon, an alternative platform that was developed in 2016 by a German developer named Eugen Rochko. Rochko created Mastodon as a decentralised platform that’s owned by no single person or organisation.
If Musk has the same vision for Twitter, then he would be fulfilling one of the pledges he made during his campaign to acquire the social media company. Some of these are already happening including promoting free speech and allowing Twitter Blue users to edit tweets in some countries.
Since he acquired the social platform, Musk has laid off more than half of the company’s employees last year which raised concerns on whether the company will have enough employees to keep things moving and implementing new features as part of Musk’s reform.
Although many have left the platform due to recent changes from Musk, the Twitter CEO is infamous for sending out several tweets per week, some of which often spark debate.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
