Jeff George

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

Putin 'killed' Alexei Navalny with frog poison—European intelligence "Only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity," the U.K. said. Navalny’s widow said, "proof: Putin killed Alexei."

"Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, posted on X: 'I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with [a] chemical weapon.'"

US battles major measles outbreak YouTube video by Reuters

I am pro-vaccine.

image from today's hearing

Epstein survivors raise their hands to signal they've been ignored by Trump's DOJ as AG Pam Bondi refuses to look at them

(Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty)

Excellent work by Jayapal here

UPDATE: @dropsitenews.com has obtained the very graphic video from the lady in the pink coat, which shows ICE executing yet another person in broad daylight:

This is footage taken by some folks on their way to work this morning before the shooting. www.instagram.com/reel/DT5lGwI...

From the Minneapolis community on Reddit: Another ICE murder in front of Glam Doll Donuts Explore this post and more from the Minneapolis community

Watch the video:

A deal we CAN refuse.

Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google.

My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!

go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT

The President of the United States is mentally unstable and unfit for office.

Before anything can move forward on this front, this is the single statement on which we all need to agree.

Trump and Putin have locked American and Russia together into a suicidal death spiral.

An invasion of Greenland is the end of the United States of America.

Donate to TJ Sabula is a patriot!!, organized by Sean Williams Please help us raise funds for patriot TJ Sabula!! TJ was suspended from his job at the Ford Au… Sean Williams needs your support for TJ Sabula is a patriot!!

We kicked in $5K to help buy some beer for the Ford autoworker 😉🍻! Thank you TJ! Link we were sent for the GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/tj-sabula-...

Statement by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell YouTube video by Federal Reserve

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG...
www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Less arguing here, and more opportunities to pass on useful information ...unless you can't live without the confrontations!

BREAKING: ICE Kills Legal Observer in Cold Blood in Minneapolis Watch the horrific video that Trump is now lying to you about.

Watch the video.

We're at a crucial juncture right now where everyone is starting to see the threat clearly, but the critical question of where we need to go, not simply as nations, but as humanity is deliberately being left unaddressed.

OK - now at US v. Nicolas Maduro presentment in SDNY, in Venezuela narco case 1st indicted in 2011, Maduro added in 2020, wife Cilia Flores added last week. Inner City Press has covered it all, including in UN until banned, and will live-skeet, thread below

A New Bridge Links the Strange Math of Infinity to Computer Science Descriptive set theorists study the niche mathematics of infinity. Now, they’ve shown that their problems can be rewritten in the concrete language of algorithms.

www.wired.com/story/a-new-...

House Republicans Buried the Jack Smith Transcript on New Year’s Eve. I Read It So You Don’t Have To. 12 takeaways from Smith's closed-door testimony

House Republicans Buried the Jack Smith Transcript on New Year’s Eve. I Read It So You Don’t Have To.
open.substack.com/pub/readtpa/...

Alzheimer's Fully Reversed in Mice, Scientists Say A new compound has been shown to reverse late stage Alzheimer's disease in lab mice, which gives millions of sufferers new cause for hope.

Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research.

A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans.
futurism.com/health-medic...

"Unfortunately, Washington has gone quiet on the proposed deal. -That’s a strategic mistake."

60 Minutes CECOT YouTube video by Gary Bauman

youtu.be/7RhNXzG-OD0?...

"Knowing that I was fortunate, but nothing has really been resolved so there's a lot more work to be done."

EU leaders to loan €90bn to Ukraine - but fail to agree on using Russian assets EU leaders said the loan would be repayable only when Russia paid reparations for the war.

A "victory for Ukraine, a victory for financial stability... and a victory for the EU", avoiding "chaos ‍and ‍division".

Russia’s Birth Rate Plunges to 200-Year Low—Putin Says Early Marriage Is the Answer Russian President Vladimir Putin encourages early marriage to address declining birth rates, citing North Caucasus traditions during his recent call-in show.

'Under the new guidelines, the media regulator Roskomnadzor instructed cinemas and streaming platforms to block or delete works that “encourage,” “justify,” or present advantages of refusing to have children, or that portray raising a family and remaining child-free as socially equivalent choices.'

The Summer of Starvation: Amid Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts, a Mother Struggles to Keep Her Sons Alive After the Trump administration cut off food from the third-largest refugee camp in the world, thousands of families faced impossible choices as their children starved.

NEW: Here's the searing tale of one woman's struggle to feed her family after the Trump Administration imposed a man-made food crisis.

Beautifully written by Brett Murphy & @annamaria.bsky.social

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Elon Musk Admits DOGE Was a Failure! YouTube video by Patrick Boyle

How the “Manhattan Project of our time” turned into a bottle rocket.