X unveiled the source code for the algorithm that determines what shows up on its For You page.
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On X, not all engagement is equal.Elon Musk's social media company on Thursday released the source code that determines how posts are recommended to users, the latest development in Musk's quest to champion transparency on the platform."The goal is straightforward — we want people to be able to answer for themselves whether a platform is limiting their reach, whether the system is fair, and why they see particular content," the company said in an X post.Musk said on X that the decision to make X open source was to "improve fairness" and seek feedback for improvement.Here's a breakdown of what was revealed in the code.Positive weightsPosts are ranked for a user's For You timeline in part based on how the algorithm predicts that user will interact with them.The algorithm, which X calls "Phoenix," examines a user's recent viewing history to predict how that user will interact with a post from an account they don't follow.If Phoenix predicts a user will share the post by copying its URL, the post is awarded a weight about 40 times as large as if Phoenix predicts a post will receive a "like."Replies, quotes, and shares by direct message each carry a weight of 5, which is 10 times the 0.5 weight assigned to a predicted like. For follows, the weight is equivalent to eight likes. For reposts, the weight is two likes.
