Elon Musk Keeps His Promise

Twitter’s Source Code Is Finally Public!

On Friday, 31st March 2023, Elon Musk tweeted that the Twitter algorithm would go open source. The tweet read, “Algorithm goes open source at noon Pacific Time.”

However, many took it with an air of caution and skepticism. Why? Well, this is not the first time he has made a similar announcement.

Over a month before this, on 21st February, he suggested that the algorithm go open source in a week. As time has shown, this was either a lie or he had ‘jumped the gun’ on such a claim.

However, it looks like the second time is the charm. As promised, Twitter uploaded some of its source code to two public repositories on GitHub.

See also

Tech & Science

Russia Joins The AI Wars With GigaChat, A ChatGPT Rival

Several of Twitter’s codes were uploaded, including the much-anticipated recommendations algorithm. This algorithm controls the tweets users see on their timelines and, more so, the ‘For You’ section.

Via a blog post, Twitter said this is a “first step to be more transparent” while also “preventing risk” to the platform and its users (tweeps). After its release, Musk hopped on a Twitter Space session where as per TechCrunch, he said:

“Our initial release of the so-called algorithm is going to be quite embarrassing, and people are going to find a lot of mistakes, but we’re going to fix them very quickly. Even if you don’t agree with something, at least you’ll know why it’s there and that you’re not being secretly manipulated … In reality, the community identifies and fixes those exploits.”

Musk also suggested that Twitter will update the algorithm regularly (every 24 to 48 hours). These updates will be made based on user suggestions and recommendations.

Regarding the risk posed by open-sourcing the code, it was revealed that the open-source releases exclude some significant pieces of code. These pieces include the code that powers Twitter’s ad recommendations, the data used to train Twitter’s recommendation algorithm or code that compromises user privacy and safety.

“We excluded any code that would compromise user safety and privacy or the ability to protect our platform from bad actors, including undermining our efforts at combating child sexual exploitation and manipulation,” Twitter wrote.

For the next few weeks, tech enthusiasts will pour through the repositories as they have already begun doing. One controversial thing that has already come to light is that the platform labels users as either Republican or Democrat.

In the Twitter space, Musk claimed he was only aware of these labels after the release. However, he also added that they should not be there.