Turning on the ‘for you’ feed on X shifted political opinions, but turning it off did not
Nature
February 19, 2026
A field experiment shows that turning on the algorithmic feed on the social-media platform X in 2023 shifted political opinions to the right, whereas turning it off had no effect on political attitudes. The algorithmic feed led users to follow more right-leaning accounts, which they continued following when the algorithm was off. Users started and continued following right-wing accounts even after switching back to a chronological feed.
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Originally published on Nature on 2/19/2026