Elon Musk says it's 'weird' that his name was found in Twitter's algorithm source code along with labels like 'Democrat' or 'Republican'

• Elon Musk said it was "weird" that his name was written into Twitter's recommendation algorithm.
• Twitter's source code labeled tweets authored by Musk, a "Republican," a "Democrat," or "power user."

What's Elon Musk's name doing in the source code for Twitter's algorithm?

Elon Musk addressed questions about that after some of the platform's source code was published on GitHub on Friday.

During a Twitter's Spaces event, two users pointed out that Musk's name had been coded into Twitter's recommendation algorithm, which specifically labeled whether a tweet had been authored by Musk.

"I think it's weird," Musk said. "This is the first time I'm learning of this by the way."

A branch of Twitter's algorithm showed that Twitter not only identified whether a tweet was authored by Musk, but it also labeled tweets based on whether the user was a "Democrat," "Republican" or a "power user." The segment of the code has since been removed on GitHub.

"Yeah guys, what's going on?" Musk asked Twitter engineers on the call.

Brian Wichers, a senior engineering manager at Twitter, said during the meeting that the specific categories were added to the algorithm about 10 years ago and are "not too important in how it's used throughout the code base."

Another Twitter engineer on the call explained that the code is used purely for tracking purposes and to "make sure we don't bias toward one group versus another one," not for the purposes of any "special treatment."

Musk said the code was an example of something the company should get rid of right away.

"It definitely shouldn't be dividing people into Republicans and Democrats, that makes no sense," Musk said. "That's why I prefaced this that there will be a ton of like stupid embarrassing things," he added.

Twitter released the code that decides which tweets show up on a user's For You timeline on Friday. Musk has been promising for months to increase transparency by open-sourcing the social media site's code. On Friday, the billionaire said on Twitter that the release represented "most of the recommendation algorithm" and the rest would be released in the future.

Musk has been critical of Twitter's code in the past and said during his Twitter Spaces appearance that the company will be making changes to its code based on recommendations from outside engineers on GitHub.

In a blog post explaining the decision to release the code, Twitter broke down how the algorithm determines which tweets to feature. The company said it has a three-step process that gathers the best tweets from "different recommendation sources," ranks them using a "machine learning model" and filters out blocked tweets, tweets it deems inappropriate, or posts the user has already seen.

It's not the first time questions have been raised regarding how Musk's content is promoted on Twitter. In February, Platformer reported that the billionaire had fired a Twitter engineer after the worker told him his popularity was sinking on the site and had given engineers the assignment to see why his tweets were getting less views after his tweet during Super Bowl Sunday saw less engagement than President Joe Biden's. The publication later reported that Twitter engineers temporarily gave Musk's tweets an "artificial boost" as a result.

At the time, Musk appeared to acknowledge his newfound visibility on the site, posting a meme about his tweets, and later said the company would be making further adjustments to the algorithm.

Last month, Platformer reported that Musk wasn't the only user receiving an artificial boost. The publication said Twitter had an internal Twitter list of 35 users that was initially created to track how algorithm modifications impacted the site's most popular users, but has since become a list of people that receive preferential treatment on the platform.

Musk is currently the most followed user on Twitter with over 133 million followers.

Insider contacted Twitter for comment. The company responded with an automated message that didn't address the inquiry.

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