Ever wondered how Twitter filters the tweets that it recommends to us? How does the For You timeline decide which accounts or tweets would be most relevant to you? Well, we may have some answers to the latter question, now that the company has released its For You feature's source code in the public domain. But first thing first: What is the For You timeline? The For You timeline provides “tweets from accounts and Topics you follow as well as recommended Tweets.” As per Twitter, this may include promoted tweets or retweets. With Twitter releasing its code on GitHub, users may now have a better insight as to how this is done. Why it matters: Algorithms shape the content provided to users on their timelines. Understanding how this timeline works can help users understand how the content is manipulated and how they end up in certain echo chambers. Further, opting for open-source means that Twitter is open to the idea of receiving suggestions from users on improving the algorithm. However, it remians to be seen if this move will lend more transparency to the ways in which Twitter functions. Three-step approach to get For You feed According to Twitter, “The [For You] recommendation pipeline is made up of three main stages that consume these features: Fetch the best Tweets from different recommendation sources in a process called candidate sourcing. Rank each Tweet using a machine learning model. Apply heuristics and filters, such as filtering out Tweets from users you’ve blocked,…
