Elon Musk makes his own account private to test new Twitter algorithm

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has set his Twitter account to private after complaints from prominent conservatives that their engagement was limited after an update to the algorithm used by the platform.

The conservatives say that private accounts are getting better engagement than public ones, and Musk wanted to see if what they said was true for him.

Musk said "something is wrong" after the reports, and wanted to see for themselves.

If the algorithm change does prove to benefit private accounts, it will put users in the position of choosing between getting higher engagement from their followers or being visible to all users so they can gain more followers.

It is possible that Twitter wants to encourage users to purchase a blue tick in order to get the best engagement.

Musk is trying to make Twitter more profitable after his purchase by putting in profit-generating measures and laying off excess staff.