Twitter Amplifies Politically Right-Leaning Tweets More, Study Says

The authors analysed the algorithmic amplification effect on tweets made by 3,634 elected politicians from major political parties in seven countries.

Twitter Amplifies Politically Right-Leaning Tweets More, Study Says

Authors measured the algorithmic amplification of 6.2 million political news articles shared in the US

Highlights
  • Right-leaning US news services were also preferentially amplified
  • Far-left-leaning and far-right-leaning outlets were not amplified
  • The algorithm amplifies the reach of politically right-leaning sources
Advertisement

Microblogging platform Twitter uses an algorithm that amplifies the reach of politically right-leaning sources more than that of politically left-leaning sources, suggested a study. Twitter uses the algorithm to personalise the content its users see on their home timelines.

Cambridge University professor Ferenc Huszar and his colleagues quantified whether Twitter's algorithm amplifies left-leaning or right-leaning content using a randomised control group of nearly two million daily active Twitter users chosen by the platform to receive content in reverse-chronological order without personalisation and a treatment group representing 4 per cent of all other accounts with personalised timelines.

The authors analysed the algorithmic amplification effect on tweets made by 3,634 elected politicians from major political parties in seven countries that are highly represented on Twitter.

The authors also measured the algorithmic amplification of 6.2 million political news articles shared in the United States. The results suggest that in six out of the seven countries, the personalisation algorithm significantly favoured the amplification of tweets from politically right-leaning sources.

Right-leaning US news services were also preferentially amplified. Contrary to popular assumptions, far-left-leaning and far-right-leaning outlets were not significantly amplified, compared with politically moderate outlets.

According to the authors, the results contribute to the evidence-based debate on the role of personalisation algorithms in shaping political content consumption.


What are the best phones of 2021? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Twitter
Moto G Stylus (2022) Price in India, Renders, Specifications Leak Online; Tipped to Debut in June 2022
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »