The web was born more than 30 years ago without commercial purposes and as a progressive project that sought to create bridges so that scientists could share information and data. The beginning of the 21st century brought us social networks, which wanted to be a rebellious space that would compete with traditional media.
However, in 2024, the algorithms of platforms X, Instagram and TikTok They seem to favor polarization, replicate misinformation and also favor the most conservative ideas… Is this a change of era or a decision from the red circle of Silicon Valley?
According to a report published this week by the Queensland University of Technology, posts with conservative content or in line with the ideas of the Republican Party in the United States began to be much more popular on the social network X since mid-July. It was on that date that its CEO, Elon Musk, He publicly expressed his support for Donald Trump.
Although these results are not conclusive, since X cut off the access of universities and academic centers to its database since last year, investigations by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal also indicate that Musk’s company’s algorithm favors content aligned with the ideas of its owner.
The South African businessman, the richest man in the world and responsible for the transformation of Twitter into X, He is a fervent defender of “techno-utopianism”with projects that in the hands of other people would be laughable, such as colonizing Mars or inserting chips into human brains, but which he manages to make a reality.
Although it maintains an agenda attentive to climate changepossibly due to the sale of electric vehicles from his company Tesla, is one of the main critics of the woke agenda, the way in which progressivism is derogatorily called in the United States.
Daniel Parisini, also known as GordoDan, hosting his streaming show on Carajo.The new influencers
Now, is this change in networks a business decision or does it reflect a social trend? This year, more than half of the world’s population went to the polls and, in almost all cases, A pattern of strong polarization was repeated and the return of traditional ideas that seem to be reflected in content on networks such as #tradwifes, young and mostly white women who upload videos to TikTok and Instagram in which they praise care and household chores.
This week, in addition, the consulting firm Pew published a report in which, after analyzing 500 content creators with more than one hundred thousand followers in the United States, it revealed that the majority of News Influencers, that is, influencers who comment on news, identify with conservative ideas.
Without numbers yet in our country, the emergence of streaming channels like Carajo or the sustained popularity of influencers like Los inheritors of Alberdi seem to indicate that a similar phenomenon could be happening here.
It is, once again, the eternal dilemma of whether social networks are merely a mirror of society or if they can shape it as they wish.a debate that seems to never be closed.