Meta's newest app, Threads, a potential rival to Twitter/X, may not want politics to be part of its platform, but it's here anyway — or maybe Threads' search trends are… It shows that. The app started testing Twitter-like trending features with a small group of users in the US last month, but users report that Threads now has a broader user base on both the desktop web and mobile. It is said to be available for use. (But Instagram says it's still testing). And as it expands, it appears that the topics that Threads users are talking about the most are actually political in nature.
As of this writing, three of the top five search trends in the thread were related to President Biden's State of the Union address, in addition to people's reactions to the speech itself, as well as Republican reactions and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Also includes the heckler.
Image credit: Thread screenshot
The fact that SOTU addresses are dominating trends on Threads means that when you provide your users with a real-time platform like Twitter that allows them to quickly respond with short text posts, they are more likely to use that platform. It shows that the quality is high. Whatever's in the news that day, we'll talk about it. And Thursday's SOTU drew plenty of commentary, with Biden leaning into controversial and polarizing issues like abortion rights, gun control, taxes, borders and crime.
But Mehta has tried to distance himself from politics on that platform for years after overcoming criticism that it favors one side or the other. The company changed its Facebook feed in 2016 to prioritize posts from family and friends over news. In 2022, we rebranded News Feed to simply “Feed.” The company has previously acknowledged discovering multiple Russia-linked disinformation campaigns aimed at influencing U.S. elections.
More recently, as the U.S. approaches election season again, Instagram announced that it would no longer “aggressively” encourage political content on Instagram or in Threads, especially after Elon Musk's takeover of power. This upset many users who came to the thread asking for it. The platform is now called X. Creators who post about laws, legislation, elections, and other political and social issues were not happy with the change.
But there's one area where Threads hasn't (yet) stifled politics, and that's in its Trends feature.
Of course, how long Threads can keep political content in the Trending section before replacing it with non-political content is an area we plan to keep an eye on.
Updated Instagram statement, 3/8/24.The company confirmed that testing is underway in the US