Twitter on Friday made public parts of the computer code that decides how the social media site recommends content, allowing users and programmers a peek into its workings and the ability to suggest modifications to the algorithm. The company said in a blog post it uploaded the code in two repositories on code-sharing platform Github. They include the source code for many parts of Twitter, including the recommendations algorithm which controls the tweets that users see on their timeline. The move comes at the behest of its billionaire owner Elon Musk, who has said code transparency would lead to higher trust among users and rapid improvements to the product. It also serves to address common concerns from users and lawmakers, who are increasingly scrutinizing social media platforms over how algorithms select the content that users see. Musk tweeted on Friday that third parties should be able to analyze the open-sourced code and “determine, with reasonable accuracy, what will probably be shown to users.” “No doubt, many embarrassing issues will be discovered, but we will fix them fast!” he tweeted. Musk also said Twitter will update its recommendation algorithm based on user suggestions every 24 to 48 hours.
Twitter makes some of its source code public
Published on: April 3, 2023 4:42 AM