X Head of Product Nikita Bier is under fire after a major algorithm change disrupted crypto’s most popular social media app.
Complaints about the change have dominated the conversation on Crypto Twitter (CT) since Friday after bot activity spiked more than 10x and Elon Musk promised to open source the platform’s recommendation algorithm “to help you understand what changed.”
An allegation that Bier (who was quickly nicknamed “Nikita Boar” by angry CT members) believes friendly greetings within CT like gm (good morning) are “wasting all their reach” went viral to over 1.5 million viewers.
Among them, a cartoon artist bemoaned Bier’s algo change, saying, “I only post a couple of times a day, and my reach has been obliterated.”
He illustrated the weekend’s events, showing Bier stabbing a user in the back while disclaiming the event as suicide.
“It’s pretty clear that the new algorithm is destroying the platform,” wrote someone else, earning thousands of likes. Even forensic researcher ZachXBT complained about Bier accommodating bots and slop.
“They’ve been openly suppressing CT content,” someone complained, which matched a claim about Bier wanting to remove “bubbles such as CT from our app.”
Another user summarized X’s algorithmically populated homepage of recommendations, branding the For You tab “murder and slop.”
Thousands of users made similar complaints about X’s For You tab prioritizing politics, ragebait, and slop.
Read more: Crypto influencer Tiffany Fong rejected Elon Musk’s baby-making offer, report
Bier deletes his own explanations
Infuriatingly, Bier has been managing the crisis by responding to complaints and then deleting many of his own explanations.
As a result, CT users are passing around screenshots of his ephemeral messages.
Bier is also an advisor to the Solana Foundation, which announced a crypto integration with X at the same time as CT was melting down.
In a tone deaf follow-up, Solana tweeted, “The algorithm is broken. The shipping is not. The builders are busy.”
Someone spelled out the obvious: “Funny that Solana says the algorithm is broken when the guy who controls the algorithm is an advisor to Solana.”
Another agreed, “Peak condescension from the guy who should fix it.” Many similar comments complained about Bier’s financial alignment with Solana over the broader crypto ecosystem.
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