The EU wants to get to the top of the X algorithm to find out why it continues to promote the far right

Every social media app has its own secret sauce: the algorithm. For example, TikTok’s algorithm is very good at keeping users engaged in endless scrolling With a value of 200 billion dollars On paper. The X (née Twitter) algorithm has a different specialty: promoting far-right extremist content. The European Union wants to know why. As part of an ongoing investigation by the European Commission, X has been ordered to hand over internal documents explaining how its recommendation algorithm works. According to the Financial Times.

The Elon Musk-owned platform will have until February 15 to disclose all the information it has regarding its content recommendation system, including details about any recent changes and documents detailing how the algorithm will be modified in the future. X will also have to keep all documents related to its algorithm from January 17 until the end of the year, if the committee wants to open the lid and see how the company turns things around.

Which is an extension of the probe It opened for the first time in December 2023 To investigate the spread of “illegal content” including misinformation and hate speech on the platform, it follows complaints from German lawmakers who believe Musk is actively and deliberately promoting the far-right Alternative for Germany party ahead of the country’s February elections.

Musk hasn’t been entirely picky about his personal preferences (of course, he’s not exactly picky about anything these days). After he succeeded in casting his weight in the US presidential elections, he decided to put his finger on the scale in Germany to see how far his influence extends, so he tweeted: “Only the AfD will be able to save Germany“.

The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is a German alternative right party Residual cells from nazi cancer That struck the country one day. Although it has long been dormant and mostly powerless in the country, it has managed to target the far right First state election victory since 1945 Late last year. Now Musk has become its primary international supporter. Earlier this month, he hosted X Space with party leader Alice Weidel and allowed her to remake her party and German history unopposed, including proving that… Adolf Hitler was a communist (any, no).

We’ll see if all this pressure on political norms nets him another political victory in Germany next month, but there is evidence to suggest he misread the room. There has already been a great deal of opposition against Musk among the people Non-governmental organizations and Companieswho abandoned X in response to his attempt to influence the AfD elections. And he too Pissed off Leader of the Christian Democratic Union, the country’s most traditionally conservative party, meaning he is unlikely to find allies if his Nazi gambit fails.

All these problems will only make Musk one thing certain: putting his company under the microscope. Assuming that Promote your own posts In an attempt to control the narrative on the platform.