Twitter users looking for Elon Musk's latest tweets got a bit of a surprise early on Feb. 1.
A visit to Musk's Twitter page was unexpectedly met with the message, "These Tweets are protected. Only approved followers can see @elonmusk's Tweets. To request access, click follow. Learn more."
So users were left wondering why access to the tweeter-in-chief's posts were no longer visible to the general public.
And the answer prompted a huge copycat response.
Twitter users with access to Musk's locked account began sharing what he had to say about it.
"Made my account private until tomorrow morning to test whether you see my private tweets more than my public ones," Musk had tweeted.
So Musk had intentionally locked his account. Once word of this spread, many Twitter users followed suit and locked their accounts as well.
So Why Did Musk Lock His Twitter Feed?
It turns out that Musk was testing a theory working its way around the Internet that a Twitter algorithm was not functioning properly.
One prominent user noticed he was getting more reaction to his tweets when his feed was set to private than when it was not. This is obviously the opposite of the way it should work.
Ian Miles Cheong, the conservative writer and prominent Twitter user, posted a screenshot that compared a tweet he posted in private to a similar one he posted in public. Sure enough, the private one got more reaction.
"Updated stats," Cheong wrote. "Note the viewcounter has been updated to properly reflect my reach."
The private tweet received 3,792 likes and 36 retweets, while the public one got 800 likes and 10 retweets.
An argument could be made that it wasn't a scientific experiment. Maybe the first tweet influenced traffic to the second one, skewing the results.
While it may not have been a definitive case study, something is going on with the algorithm and it was enough for Musk to try the experiment himself.
Meanwhile, Twitter users reacted to the activity with a degree of sarcasm. Here is one example.
