It's incredibly easy to game Twitter's trending news algorithm

Posted on Feb 27, 2026

Twitter’s “Today’s News” section is a mix of real news, very minor stories (usually discussion of a random AI-related post), nonsense trends, and barely disguised marketing.

The algorithm behind it seems pretty easy to manipulate.

“Today’s News” box with the headline “Tech Layoff Tracker Receives Direct Message Warning of Imminent Major …”

This trending topic revolves around an explosive DM warning of imminent 25% layoffs at a FAANG company:

Summary of a story entitled “Tech Layoff Tracker Receives Direct Message Warning of Imminent Major Layoffs at Unspecified FAANG Tech Company”

Here is the original post, which comes from an account called Tech Layoff Tracker (@TechLayoffLover):

Post from Tech layoff Tracker reading “Just got this DM. Shit is getting real out there. If you might be affected by this, I’d start making your exit plan and building up savings now”. The referenced DM is included as a screenshot.

There is no reason to believe this post is real. The account, created this month (February 2026), made its first post 7 hours ago. The post in question was made 5 hours ago, or 2 hours after the account’s very first post. Of course, the account carries an utterly meaningless blue “verified” checkmark.

Twitter bio for an account called “Tech Layoff Tracker”, created in February 2026

Whether this was posted just as a troll or for more sinister purposes (market manipulation, etc.), the Twitter algorithm is a willing accomplice to a lot of pretty low-effort fakery.