Elon Musk's X platform is on a quest for the "most truth seeking" online discussions. As a part of this effort, X is re-examining the use of downvotes for post replies. This feature is intended to improve the ranking system and prioritize the most relevant comments within threads.
The downvote option is currently under internal testing and was discovered by researcher Aaron Perris within the app's code. X engineer Jay Baxter confirmed the experiment's existence.
However, unlike traditional downvote systems, X's approach aims to be more nuanced.
Baxter explains that a simple downvote system can create an echo chamber effect similar to Reddit's. To counter this, X is considering weighted downvotes based on users' political stances. This would prevent users from a particular ideology from downvoting opposing viewpoints into oblivion.
The ideal outcome would be a system that demotes irrelevant content like spam, misleading information, and demonstrably false statements, without suppressing dissenting opinions.
This approach mirrors a similar experiment conducted by Twitter in 2021. Twitter also explored downvotes for replies, aiming to prioritize valuable comments over irrelevant ones. However, Twitter's system lacked the political weighting X is considering.
Twitter's experiment faced challenges as users often employed downvotes to express disagreement, replicating Reddit's behavior. X acknowledges this and is designing its system for users to explicitly downrank comments they consider irrelevant.
By factoring in political leanings, X hopes to ensure the system penalizes only true junk, not opposing viewpoints. However, the effectiveness hinges on X's ability to accurately determine political stances.
This experiment holds promise for enhancing in-app engagement by highlighting valuable replies. However, weighting downvotes based on political leaning presents a potential slippery slope. It could lead to the amplification of certain types of misinformation, especially on inherently divisive topics.
While X hasn't confirmed a public rollout, this early experiment demonstrates the platform's ongoing efforts to foster constructive online interactions.