【X Platform Once Again Accused of Tweaking Algorithm to Boost Musk and Republican User Influence】 November 18th, according to a new study published by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Elon Musk's posts suddenly became more popular. Elon Musk's X may have adjusted its algorithm around the time he announced support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign to boost the influence of his account and other Republican users.The authors of the study, Queensland University of Technology Associate Professor of Digital Media Timothy Graham and Monash University Professor of Communication and Media Studies Mark Andrejevic, first examined Musk's engagement before and after his support for Trump in July. Starting around July 13th, Musk's posts saw a 138% increase in views and a 238% increase in retweets compared to before that date. They concluded that Musk's data "exceeded overall engagement trends observed across the platform." (This paper is not the first to suggest that X adjusted its algorithm to specifically boost Musk's account.) Researchers also found that other right-leaning accounts they checked saw similar boosts starting in July, though to a lesser extent.The findings of this study align with other investigations into potential right-wing bias in X algorithms recently reported by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. However, the researchers noted that due to X platform cutting off access to its academic API, they could only gather "relatively little data." They added that while they did not see signs of missing data, they "cannot guarantee that 100% of posts have been collected."