Elon Musk’s new 'for you' feed on Twitter proves There’s Always A Tweet

The latest Twitter update courtesy of Elon Musk – which sees the timeline split into two with ‘for you’ and ‘latest’ feeds – is here and already dividing opinion, but a past tweet from the company owner has revealed even he hates tweets recommended by an algorithm.

If you haven’t updated your iPhone yet, then the new iOS iteration of the Twitter app sees the old set-up – where you could tap stars in the top right-hand corner to select ‘top’ tweets or latest tweets – replaced with one where the former is the default.

Want a reverse chronological feed? Well, you’ll have to keep swiping right on the timeline to access it.

A thread from Twitter Support on Tuesday read: “See the tweets you want to see. Starting today on iOS, swipe between tabs to see Tweets recommended ‘for you’, or tweets from the accounts you’re ‘following’.

“The ‘for you’ and ‘following’ tabs replace ‘home’ and ‘latest’ and will be pinned to the top of your timeline so you can easily switch between them. Swipe to switch timelines instead of tapping the [stars] icon.”

Just like when it rolled out a view count feature last month to the annoyance of many, this latest shake-up has also proven controversial. It just so happens to go against a stance taken by Musk back in May, too.

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The series of tweets, sent before the Tesla boss officially bought the company in October, state: “Very important to fix your Twitter feed. 1. Tap home button. 2. Tap stars on upper right of screen. 3. Select ‘latest tweets’.

“You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don’t realise. Easy to switch back and forth to see the difference.

“This message brought to you by the Illuminaughty.”

In follow-up tweets, he went on to clarify that he wasn’t “suggesting malice in the algorithm”, however.

“Rather that it’s trying to guess what you might want to read and, in doing so, inadvertently manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realising this happening.

“Not to mention potential bugs in the code. Open source is the way to go to solve both trust and efficacy,” he added.

And what Past Elon thinks is very much how a lot of current Twitter users feel now, branding the move as “trash” and a “wonderfully terrible decision”.

“The tweets I want to see are on my timeline from people I purposely followed,” commented one.

Another noted: “The slow extinction of the reverse chronological timeline. The rise of the ‘recommended’ posts being the default people see on opening.

“It started when Facebook decided to copy TikTok’s For You page.”

A third shared a handshake meme suggesting both Twitter and YouTube are “making the worst, most pointless updates in existence”.

Oh, and as you can imagine, Android users unaffected by the latest mess have been gloating too, writing “Android keeps on winning” and it is “another reason to stay” on the Apple alternative.

Thanks, Elon. We hate it.

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