Reprogrammed Social Media Feeds: How Algorithms Are Reshaping Your Political Identity
- Anonymous | Authenticated & Thoughtfully Reviewed by For The Writers
- Jun 27
- 13 min read
Updated: 21 hours ago
In early 2025, tens of thousands of users across the U.S. reported something unusual: they opened their social media apps. They discovered that they were suddenly following Republican or MAGA-themed pages they had never previously engaged with. Some were being recommended AI tools branded with conservative slogans. Others found that they had unintentionally unfollowed progressive news outlets, activist accounts, or Democratic political figures, without ever adjusting their settings. These reports weren’t isolated. They came from everyday users across Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok, representing a diverse range of political views.
This wasn’t a glitch—it was the result of a combination of algorithmic recalibration, political influence, and deliberate platform-level changes that occurred after key events, including Elon Musk’s open endorsement of Trump and structural shifts at Meta that favored more right-leaning content. In some cases, platform engineers quietly updated “engagement scoring” models, boosting content aligned with Republican messaging under the guise of “neutrality” or “balance.” On TikTok, users who watched even a few seconds of patriotic or traditional values content, whether they agreed with it or not, were bombarded with a steady stream of MAGA-adjacent videos within a matter of hours.
Liberal and moderate users weren’t the only ones impacted. Conservative users also reported their feeds shifting, but toward increasingly radical, rage-inducing content. Even those who identified as traditional Republicans saw more conspiracy-themed posts, less nuance, and fewer centrist or policy-focused voices. Meanwhile, apolitical users were inadvertently drawn into political feeds, often through lifestyle or trending content that served as Trojan horses for ideological messaging.
