In part, obviously. Revising its content moderation policies. announced on Tuesday; Meta admitted that its approach to restricting political content across its platforms was “pretty stupid” and will now be addressed. Facebook The company said it will once again enable political content on Instagram and Threads, allowing people who want political content in their feeds to see more of it.
Meta noted that the amount of political content in Meta's apps has been reduced since 2021. A blog postBased on feedback from users who want to see less of this content in their feeds. However, changes to limit recommendations in Instagram's apps went live last year.
From Meta's early 2024 decision Stop suggesting. Let's remember that political content for users on Instagram and Threads—a move made in a crucial presidential election year for the United States—was met with backlash from both users and creators. Hundreds of creators An open letter was signed. In April, it was argued that the decision to limit political content should be optional rather than left on by default.
The creators were particularly concerned about how the Meta would decide what content was political. In Instagram's definition, this content is subject to laws, Climate change, expressed as anything related to elections or social contexts; They say it would limit the reach of conversations around things like gun control and reproductive rights.
They were worried about how these changes would limit their reach and ability to reach new audiences, which would have a direct impact on their ability to promote their own brand and their revenue.
At the same time, users felt the Meta's changes in how political content appeared. Suppressing their voices on social media. That didn't help either. Later, the “bug” appeared. to suppress political content by reverting users' settings to default; Political content they don't follow will be restricted.
Despite these changes, There continues to be a clear call for politics in users' feeds — especially Threads. Meta's X/Twitter alternative; Political topics are frequent; Dominating the trend section..
Meta explained today how it will change political content in users' feeds, saying it will take a “more personalized approach” going forward. In the beginning, It takes “civic content” from the people and pages you follow on Facebook and treats it like any other content in your feed — that is, it's displayed based on specifics like ratings and how many users liked or viewed a post.
The company said it will recommend political content to people based on these personalization signals and expand options to control what content people see. The latter reveals that Meta will implement specific controls that users can toggle within their settings. It's unclear when and where Meta will advertise these controls to users.