The Journal created accounts on the social media platform that only signaled an affinity for nonpolitical topics, but most posts in its “For You” feed were partisan or related to the election. Kamala Harris' campaign topped the list of most viewed accounts. A post mocking pro-Trump hecklers at their Wisconsin rally reached all Journal accounts. Ten of the other 14 most viewed posts leaned to the right, including Trump's, and overall, pro-Trump content appeared about twice as often as pro-Harris content.

“If that nasty, annoying, zero-vote demon Kamala Harris can cheat enough to win the presidency – then America is over,” catturd2 wrote in a post that was delivered to almost all of the Journal’s newly created accounts.

X has faced turmoil since Elon Musk took over in 2022, but remains a place where tens of millions of Americans gather and absorb information. What users see impacts the platform's business, which struggles with many major advertisers nervous about controversial content. X has said that politics only make up a small percentage of what users see, but the Journal's analysis found that it is difficult to avoid political content, at least for new users.

A spokesman for X declined to respond to a detailed list of questions from the Journal.

To play the role of The accounts logged in at regular intervals and scrolled through the platform's For You timeline, an algorithmic feed. The journal used a computer program to automatically categorize whether and how the contributions were political.

Less than a third of the individual posts seen on the Journal's accounts were political in nature. But the algorithm of

Musk, who endorsed and financially supported Trump for president, says the company's handling of content has nothing to do with his personal views.

“The platform is neutral, but I will express my opinion,” he posted in June.

The journal was unable to determine why X recommended a particular piece of content. The company has released code that claims to power its recommendation system. “The algorithm is open source and simply tries to show people what they are most likely to find appealing,” Musk wrote in August. But researchers say X didn't share any additional information needed to build a complete picture.

The Journal account interested in crafts, theme parks and running received the most political content, while the account interested in science, music and travel saw the least.

According to former X engineers, several factors could increase political content on X, including user behavior. The platform's policies under Musk dismayed many liberal users. It is estimated that thousands of accounts have been restored that were suspended for policy violations under Twitter's previous leadership, including many right-wing users and Trump's own account, @realdonaldtrump, which Twitter deleted following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol .

Republicans are largely the biggest political advertisers on X, according to company data, although the Journal's analysis excluded posts marked as advertising. In total, the Journal's accounts recorded more than 26,000 unique posts.

While the Journal's analysis found that

The platform often suggested that Musk, who has the most followers of any user on X, should be a new user's first account to follow. His posts also appeared at the top of Journal accounts' “For You” feeds more often than any other user, including a video clip of him campaigning alongside Trump posted on Oct. 17 and first on all Journal accounts was to be seen.

The following Monday, Musk's rally video trailed only a post by Alex Jones, the once-banned conspiracy theorist who predicted a landslide for Trump. “But the Desperate Deep State is planning multiple October surprises and Black Swan events!” reads Jones' post, which has been viewed more than 30 million times as of October 24th.

Musk oversees six companies, including electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX. He leads technology at When Musk has an idea or complaint, he has a habit of texting top engineers to get them to take care of it.

At one point last year, engineers increased Musk's contributions after he complained that they weren't getting the attention they needed, the Journal previously reported. Musk recently complained that only a fraction of users watched his live streams. According to a person familiar with the move, engineers then worked on making livestreams generally more promotional on the site.

Before Musk took over Twitter in late 2022, results of his own research suggested that the platform was primed to amplify the voices of the political right. Researchers couldn't determine why, and that research division was dismantled shortly after Musk took over as part of a major downsizing, former employees said.

Republicans now view

Brian Whitton contributed to this article.

Write to Jack Gillum at [email protected], Alexa Corse at [email protected] and Adrienne Tong at [email protected]