Jessica Silbey

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

yaledailynews.com/articles/wha...

The First Amendment Troop staged “ResistDance” — a tribute and act of artistic dissent. #dance YouTube video by Under The Desk News

youtube.com/shorts/E3d6o...

Long live the art of resistance.

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

ICE, F**K You - A Protest Song for Minneapolis YouTube video by scaredketchup

youtu.be/4PUOhAJG5EU?...

Walz: Minnesotans are witnessing, and we're creating a log of evidence for the future prosecution of ice agents and officials responsible for this.

Extending 42 USC 1983 to federal officers has become a moral necessity.

I cannot thank our contributors enough: @marklemley.bsky.social, @patentscholar.bsky.social, @denverfrakes.bsky.social, Melissa Wasserman, @emptydoors.bsky.social, Janet Freilich, @jessicasilbey.bsky.social, @davidlschwartz.bsky.social, and Neel Sukhatme. Looking forward to more years of research!

Keith Dresser's wife here. "Boss" requires context. I'll leave it there. But also, he knows more about these recipes than anyone. So go to the source! (Tip: he's not on bsky)

Mayor Michelle Wu speaking truth to power. A fabulous example.

BU Legal Scholars Assess Supreme Court Ruling Limiting Nationwide Injunctions Justices defer decision on the constitutionality of effort to end birthright citizenship

#BULawProf @jessicasilbey.bsky.social, @robertltsai.bsky.social, and @jedshug.bsky.social discuss SCOTUS' ruling limiting nationwide injunctions and its deferred decision on the constitutionality of the effort to end birthright citizenship.

Read more ➡️ www.bu.edu/articles/202...

"What I see in this decision is the court’s attempt to buy time, through procedural mechanisms, to avoid deciding a question that it would rather see decided by the political process," says @jessicasilbey.bsky.social.

A Viral Marriage Proposal Raises Privacy Questions in the Social Media Age BU professors from COM and LAW on the debate sparked by a bystander-captured video of a private moment along the Charles River

A sweet moment gone viral or an invasion of privacy #BULawProf @jessicasilbey.bsky.social & @hartzog.bsky.social join @comatbu.bsky.social Prof. Kathryn Coduto to discuss a public marriage proposal shared online and the privacy questions it raises in the social media age. www.bu.edu/articles/202...

It features pieces from @orlylobel.bsky.social, @ariezra.bsky.social, Aleksander Goranin, @matthewsag.bsky.social, Peter K. Yu, @jessicasilbey.bsky.social, @nicholson.bsky.social, and @saragerke.bsky.social!

As someone who has been on the business end of nationwide injunctions that I thought were improper, I find the question of what rules we should adopt for them to be genuinely hard. But yesterday's decision deserves massive criticism, for at least two reasons. (Thread.)

@jessicasilbey.bsky.social and I have a new paper that draws on our empirical research into designers and focuses on how designers conceive of and solve design problems. Feedback welcome.

I'm wondering if pilots and flight attendants are considering a national day(s) of walk out in protest of the FAA layoffs?

If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me."

"But any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.

s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

AUSA resignation letter.

Séamas O'Reilly: The world is an objectively worse place because of tech-bro oligarchs As Zuckerberg pontificates about masculinity and traditional values, he does so in soundbites as lifeless as his former paeans to gender and racial equality

www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...

Statement from President Joe Biden on the Equal Rights Amendment | The White House I have supported the Equal Rights Amendment for more than 50 years, and I have long been clear that no one should be discriminated against based on their

We have a 28th amendment? www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...

www.youtube.com/live/gMwqdDz...

This made me cry.

Opinion | Are We Sleepwalking Into Autocracy? What we can learn from countries that have pushed back on threats to democracy.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/o...

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/09/o...

update: here is the AI policy i wrote for my doc seminar this term (i have already located the typo and fixed it, which tbh is like 60% of the point of posting it in public)