As the election cycle heats up, Instagram and Threads will likely reduce the amount of political content entering many users' feeds. These changes, which limit the scope of political content from accounts users don't already follow, will be enforced by default. If you already want to know how to get such content back into your feed, follow our guide to changing Instagram's political settings here.
Meta has worked to reduce the reach of news and political content across its platforms. Especially when it comes to content that is recommended by algorithms rather than surfacing from a direct connection to a person or account. Threads hosts news but does not “amplify” it, its director Adam Mosseri said last year. And Facebook is shutting down its News tab as it continues to block news content in Canada, where it is in a dispute with a law that requires platforms to pay publishers for their content.
And what kind of posts and topics does Instagram actually consider political? As expected, the answer is broad and vague: “Things that can relate to the law, elections, social topics, etc.” It covers. For more on why these changes were implemented and what it says about Meta's priorities across its expansive social empire, well, watch today's episode below.