Twitter has recently made a bold move by making some of its source code public on GitHub, the popular platform for sharing and collaborating on code. The company said it wanted to make its online platform more transparent and allow users and programmers to have a peek into how it works and suggest improvements.
The source code that Twitter has shared includes the code for its recommendation algorithm, which decides which tweets appear in users' timelines. This is a crucial part of Twitter's user experience, as it influences what content users see and engage with on the platform. The recommendation algorithm takes into account various factors, such as users' preferences, interests, behavior, and network, to show them relevant and personalized tweets.
Twitter's CEO Elon Musk announced the news on Twitter, saying "Twitter recommendation source code now available to all on GitHub". He also said that third parties should be able to analyze the open-sourced code and "determine, with reasonable accuracy, what will probably be shown to users". He added that Twitter will update its recommendation algorithm based on user suggestions every 24 to 48 hours. A few days ago, Musk revealed on Twitter that Twitter's recommendation algorithm would be made open source on March 31st.
Musk said that he expected many embarrassing issues to be discovered in the code, but he was confident that they would be fixed fast. He also invited users and programmers to join a session on Spaces, Twitter's audio chat feature, to bring recommendations and questions about how the platform's code works.
The move comes at a time when social media platforms are facing increasing scrutiny and criticism over how their algorithms select and amplify content, especially content that is harmful, misleading, or divisive. By making its code public, Twitter hopes to address some of these concerns and build trust among its users and stakeholders. It also hopes to benefit from the collective wisdom and creativity of the open-source community, which could help improve its product and service.
However, not all of Twitter's code is public. The company said it excluded code that would compromise user safety or privacy, as well as details that would undermine efforts to prevent child sexual abuse material on the platform. It also did not share the code that powers its ad recommendations, which is another important source of revenue and influence for the company.
The news also comes after parts of Twitter's source code were leaked on GitHub last week, which prompted Twitter to ask GitHub to take down the code and reveal the identity of the account that had posted it. Twitter asked a U.S. court to order GitHub to produce "all identifying information" associated with the account, according to a legal filing.
Twitter's decision to open-source some of its code is a rare and commendable step in the social media industry, which is often secretive and proprietary about its algorithms and operations. It remains to be seen how this will affect Twitter's performance, reputation, and user satisfaction in the long run.
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