Has Elon Musk’s X algorithm change backfired?

How much is X the fiefdom of one man? The question has become increasingly prominent in the post-Christmas fug, thanks to an almighty row over the H-1B visa which has lit up the site for several days.

H-1B is a US visa category meant for “highly skilled” workers. While many claim that it has become a piece of human capital arbitrage — by which software companies import grunt-work developers from India to undercut American wages — Elon Musk disagrees. But in spite of the many levers he wields, the X owner appears to have lost the argument — torn down by the MAGA-inclined user base that had been cheering him on for months. Over the weekend, the sense was of the man who runs the world being bound up by millions of Lilliputians’ tiny ropes.