German regulator probes whether Musk's tweets were boosted

A German media regulator said Friday it would investigate whether Twitterhad given CEOElon Musk's tweets undue prominence on the social media platform.

The decision by the Bavarian regulator BLM follows a media report that Musk's tweets had been manipulated to appear in timelines more often.

The US tech blog Platformer reported that Twitter's billionaire owner allegedly threatened to fire engineers if they did not change the algorithm to ensure that his tweets would achieve a high reach among followers.

The trigger was reportedly that Musk's tweet about the Super Bowl final was displayed significantly less often than that of US President Joe Biden's post about the event.

Twitter could face a penalty in Germany

BLM warned that if Twitter has violated the media code in Germany, which is aimed at preventing issues like election interference, the social media firm could face a sanction.

"In the event of a possible manipulation of the algorithm, the state media treaty — which prohibits discrimination and is intended to prevent the deliberate prioritization of certain journalistic-editorial content — will be triggered," said BLM President Thorsten Schmiege.

"Twitter is of enormous importance, especially for political communication. Ensuring diversity of opinion and thus also a free democratic dialogue is a task that the regulators take very seriously in view of the power of media intermediaries to influence opinion."

Musk hits back at media report

Musk denied Friday that there was a deliberate increase in the prominence of his posts. 

"Several major media sources incorrectly reported that my Tweets were boosted above normal levels earlier this week. A review of my tweet likes & views over the past 6 months, especially as a ratio of followers, shows this to be false," he wrote.

"We did have a bug that briefly caused replies to have the same prominence as primary Tweets, but that has now been fixed," he said.

Twitter users can either have their timelines displayed in chronological order or selected by software. 

This week, many users said the computer-generated selection was at times dominated by Musk's reply tweets.

Musk's ownership mired in controversy

Since he took control of Twitter in October, Musk has ordered the platform to restore the accounts of controversial figures who were banned earlier, including former US President Donald Trump, and he has frequently commented on political issues.

Among other things, he criticized the US Democratic Party and suggested holding UN-supervised votes on whether people in Ukrainian territories illegally annexed by Russia wanted to remain part of Ukraine or Russia.

After he laid off almost half of Twitter's employees, Musk was warned by the European Union to maintain safety controls and content moderation in accordance with the bloc's rules.

mm/es (DPA, EPD)

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