Meta doesn't want its new app, Threads, to become a second Twitter, full of heated political debate and the toxicity that comes with it. In today's announcement, the company detailed how it will approach recommending political content on both Instagram and its sister app Threads, Elon Musk's X competitor. That means we will no longer impose politics on our users. Similar to Meta's existing policies on Facebook, the Instagram and Threads recommendation engines will not proactively suggest political posts to users by default, the company announced Friday.
At Facebook, Meta has reduced the amount of political content that appears in Feed (formerly News Feed), Reels, Facebook Watch (videos), groups to join, and Like recommendations. Now, it has announced that this same approach will be implemented on Instagram and Reels in the months leading up to the 2024 US election.
In an announcement shared on the Instagram blog and Meta Transparency Center, the company said the changes to the Instagram app will impact areas such as Instagram Reels and Instagram Explore, as well as in-feed recommendations across both Instagram and Threads. said. With the latter move, Meta is significantly differentiating her new app (now called X) from her Twitter.
As an extension of its function as a real-time news network, Twitter is often a forum for political discussion. But Instagram has kept Threads away from news, delaying the addition of X's proposed “trending” feature. Instagram head Adam Mosseri also made it clear in October that Threads would not “amplify news” on the platform.
To be clear, the upcoming Meta changes will impact Instagram's role in recommending content, but will not affect how users see content from accounts they already follow, the company said. Ta. For example, if a non-recommended account posts political content, such as news about elections, the law, or other social topics, that account's content will still reach followers through feeds and Stories. It is not actively recommended to people other than followers.
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Instagram says professional accounts can check their current eligibility status using the Account Status feature and can choose to edit or delete posts from this page. You can also request a review if you don't agree with Instagram's decision on your content, or you can stop posting your content so it can be recommended again. (However, the company did not say how long people would have to refrain from posting political posts to become eligible again.)
Additionally, users who want to encourage political content can turn this on in both their Instagram and thread settings. Facebook will likely gain similar control at some point in the future.
Removing politics from the recommendation screen and forcing users to toggle politics back on if they want to see it comes after Meta has shouldered much of the blame for much of the world's political unrest for years. This is a change. Whether we're being held responsible for the genocide in Myanmar or the January 6th attack on our nation's capital here in the United States, meta social networking apps are amplifying hate and misinformation. , has been used to lead to violence. It's clear the company wants to put more distance between what it pushes to users through its algorithms and the kind of content that could be problematic on a large scale.
The move could also help appease lawmakers who are considering how to regulate Big Tech companies that have acquired monopoly power.
Meta says the change will be rolled out to Instagram and Threads users “slowly over time to properly address it,” but does not specify a specific date when it will be fully available to all users. is not shown.