Your Instagram and Threads feed just got less political.
Later this year, Meta will implement several changes to the content distribution on their platform. One such change involves not recommending political content on two major platforms: Instagram and Threads.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram and Threads, announced on his Threads account that the platforms will stop amplifying content classified as political. However, users will continue to see political content from all the accounts they follow.
These changes will be gradually rolled into different regions in the next few weeks, starting with the United States. The changes will affect sections of their platforms where Meta’s recommendation algorithms suggest content or posts from accounts that users don’t follow. So, users will no longer see political content from accounts they don’t follow in sections such as Instagram Reels, in-feed recommendations, Explore, and suggested users on Threads.
The most complex problem Meta’s algorithms will face is determining the correct parameters for classifying content as political. In Mosseri’s post, he did not provide specifics on how Meta will classify “political” content. However, he clarified that Meta defines political content as “content likely to be about topics related to government or elections such as posts about laws, elections, or social topics.” Based on his explanation, the algorithm will likely look for specific keywords in posts before classifying them as political.
Mosseri clarified that Meta’s goal is to preserve people’s ability to interact with political content while respecting each person’s appetite for it. For those who would still love to see political content from accounts they don’t follow, there will be an option to opt-in via Instagram and Threads’ settings. By default, however, this setting will not be enabled, so you must opt in manually to see more political content in your feed or search.
Meta clarified in a blog post that content from ineligible accounts will not be recommended, even if it meets recommendation guidelines. When these changes launch, professional Instagram accounts can see the “Account Status” feature to verify if their posts are eligible for recommendation. Users can also appeal if their posts are not classified as political content. If you’re a creator, it is crucial to carefully monitor how these changes will affect the reach of your content.
Meta is implementing these measures to avoid amplifying political content, an issue they’ve faced previously. Beyond political content, Meta is also restricting search and recommendation of content deemed sensitive, like vaccines and COVID-related information. During the early days of threads, Mosseri also emphasized that the platform doesn’t want to encourage sharing much political content and hard news. These changes clearly indicate the direction they want to take with Threads.
