Much debate surrounds Meta‘s relationship to politics and political content on its platforms; the site is frequently accused of showcasing content meant to incite agitation among users in the sake of participation. The business has made an effort in recent years to shed light on its image, and as a result, users may now limit politically recommended content that is suggested by algorithms on Threads and Instagram. “Likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large” is how Meta defines political content, which is, in practice, nearly everything. The company confirmed to The Verge that users can now limit this extremely small collection of posts, with the option to do so being turned on by default.
In February, Meta made its initial announcement about the functionality, stating that they wanted “Instagram and Threads to be a great experience for everyone.” The press release stated, “If you decide to follow accounts that post political content, we don’t want to get between you and their posts, but we also don’t want to proactively recommend political content from accounts you don’t follow.” In essence, this function will restrict the exposure of political content through Explore, Reels, suggested users, and in-feed recommendations if it is enabled. You should normally see political posts from the accounts you follow on your feed.
You can check if the feature has reached your account or turn it off in Instagram’s settings. Just go to suggested content, and you’ll see a tab called political content. Click on that, and there will be two options: limit or don’t limit political content from accounts you don’t follow. However, choosing to restrict it doesn’t necessarily mean a total embargo. A note under the open specifies, “You might see less political or social topics in your suggested content.” Whichever you choose will apply to both Instagram and Threads.
