Sit Down

Elon Musk is picking fights with Twitter execs and losing

“You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don’t realize.”

This friggin' guy

Taylor Hill/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Huge news courtesy of Elon Musk, everyone: Did you know that Twitter’s default timeline relies on an algorithm that is designed to “manipulate” the initial tweets you see in order to customize your experience on the social media platform? Don’t worry, though, the Technoking discovered an ingenious hack to get around this annoying feature so that you only see tweets from the people you follow in chronologic—

... Oh. Sorry, you already knew about the “Latest” tab option for your timeline? And you’ve known for quite a while now? Well then. It’s almost as if Musk is just picking fights with past and current CEOs of Twitter for no discernible reason and, all the while, betraying the fact that he has no idea how his potential $44 billion vanity purchase actually works.

Distractions, distractions — Musk has repeatedly crowed about the Twitter algorithm as if A) there’s a single algorithm behind the social media site’s operations and B) he actually knows how a real algorithm works.

Despite his vow to make Twitter’s code open source in the name of transparency, it’s just not that simple or safe to do. It’s become incredibly clear that Musk’s main gripes about the social media platform have less to do with the technical aspects of how it is run and more to do with Musk trying his damndest to wriggle his way around federal oversight, and, perhaps, settling petty scores between him and fellow members of the Billionaire Boyz Club.

Stop spamming everyone about spam — In the end, it may all prove too complicated for the Technoking, judging from his announcement late last week that he would be pausing his acquisition of Twitter so that experts could investigate the issue of spam accounts... another misleading statement that royally pissed off current Twitter employees, including current CEO Parag Agarwal. It’s not new news that Twitter is constantly dealing with ever-evolving spam strategies. We can’t believe we’re saying this, but... we’re on Twitter’s side for this one.