Twitter Expands Recommendations Push with New Tests

The Twitter application is seen on a digital device, April 25, 2022, in San Diego. (AP)
The Twitter application is seen on a digital device, April 25, 2022, in San Diego. (AP)
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Twitter Expands Recommendations Push with New Tests

The Twitter application is seen on a digital device, April 25, 2022, in San Diego. (AP)
The Twitter application is seen on a digital device, April 25, 2022, in San Diego. (AP)

Twitter is expanding how it recommends posts from accounts that users do not follow, the social media company announced on Tuesday.

As part of the expansion, it is also building tools for users to control and provide feedback on that content.

"With millions of people signing up for Twitter every day, we want to make it easier for everyone to connect with accounts and Topics that interest them," Twitter said in a blog post.

The tests come as social media companies double down this year on what they call "unconnected content," or posts from accounts users do not follow, after short video app TikTok shot to prominence relying entirely on algorithm-driven suggestions.

Among the new designs Twitter has been testing is placement of "related tweets" below conversations on a tweet detail page, said Angela Wise, a senior director of product management responsible for "discovery" on the service.

Twitter is also experimenting with an "X" tool that users may click to remove recommended tweets they do not like from their timelines, the blog post said.

Competitor Meta Platforms is aiming to double the percentage of recommended content that fills its users' feeds on Facebook and Instagram by the end of 2023, it disclosed in July.

Twitter is making less of a wholesale shift than that, having embraced recommended tweets in its home timeline as far back as 2014, although at least some of its redesigns likewise include nods to TikTok.

In one recent experiment presenting a choice between algorithmic and chronological versions of its home timeline, it renamed the algorithmic version "For You," the same as TikTok's main page, for example.

Twitter's Wise said the company's discovery efforts were largely aimed at new users, who have yet to figure out which accounts to follow and generally send the company fewer signals about their interests than do prolific longtime tweeters.

Some users have complained about "related tweets" exposing them to irrelevant hyperpartisan content and creating confusion over which tweets were part of a conversation and which were suggested by algorithm.



Apple Takes Fight Against $587 Million EU Antitrust Fine to Court

FILE PHOTO: Apple logo is seen on the Apple store at The Marche Saint Germain in Paris, France July 15, 2020.  REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Apple logo is seen on the Apple store at The Marche Saint Germain in Paris, France July 15, 2020. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
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Apple Takes Fight Against $587 Million EU Antitrust Fine to Court

FILE PHOTO: Apple logo is seen on the Apple store at The Marche Saint Germain in Paris, France July 15, 2020.  REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Apple logo is seen on the Apple store at The Marche Saint Germain in Paris, France July 15, 2020. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

Apple took a challenge against EU regulators to Europe's second highest court on Monday after they fined it 500 million euros ($587 million) earlier this year for breaching landmark rules aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech.

The European Commission in a decision in April said the iPhone maker's technical and commercial restrictions that prevent app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the App Store breached the Digital Markets Act.