by - Musk asked engineers to find ways to promote his tweets after the Super Bowl, Platformer reported.
- Musk made the request after President Joe Biden received more engagement for an Eagles tweet.
- Engineers worked under threat of dismissal to come up with a system to boost your tweets.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk apparently didn’t like that a Super Bowl tweet from him was getting fewer impressions than President Joe Biden’s — and Twitter engineers worked tirelessly after the big game to fix it, according to a report. Platformer’s new report.
During the game, in which the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Kansas City Chiefs, Biden retweeted a video of his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, showing support for the Eagles. Musk also tweeted in support of the Eagles, but deleted his tweet. four hours later.
Biden’s tweet gained nearly 29 million impressions, while Musk’s tweet had more than 9 million impressions, reported Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer and Casey Newton.
As a result, Musk asked 80 engineers on Sunday night to start working on a project that would ensure their tweets also got meaningful engagement — and if they didn’t, they would lose their jobs. Musk reportedly also flew his private jet to the Bay Area — where Twitter’s San Francisco office is located — after the game to speak with his team face-to-face, Platformer reported.
In a morning Slack message on Monday, Musk’s cousin James Musk requested that any and all engineers respond to resolve the engagement discrepancy, which he described as “high urgency,” according to the Platformer report.
According to the report, engineers at Twitter worked overnight to create a system that would allow Musk to receive higher promotion on his tweets above other users “by a factor of 1,000,” reported Platformer. Engineers created new code that automatically “lights up” all of Musk’s tweets, allowing them to bypass Twitter’s filters that traditionally prevent a specific account from flooding the entire feed, the agency said.
The engineers also talked about reasons why Musk’s tweets may be performing less well, including the fact that multiple people on the site may have blocked or muted his content, though they also found technical reasons that resulted in less promotion of his tweets while they fixed it. the problem, reported Platformer.
Musk’s boost comes when he publicly obsesses over his involvement in the app; the CEO fired one of his top engineers last week after the employee suggested that Musk’s waning engagement was due to waning public interest in Musk himself, Platformer reported.
In a tweet Tuesday, Musk appeared to acknowledge his new visibility on the site, posting a meme about his tweets, and subsequently said the company would additional tweaks to the algorithm.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 14, 2023
Platformer reported on Tuesday that the boost factor for Musk’s tweets is now less than 1,000.
A representative for Twitter did not immediately respond to the Insider’s request for comment.
