Instagram users caught on to what some said was a secretive rollout of a policy to stop recommending political content on its platform or on its Threads platform.
The app followed in the footsteps of its parent company, Meta, which has been limiting political posts across its other platform, Facebook, since Feb. 9. Meta claimed to have received feedback from users requesting to see less political content. It similarly will not recommend accounts of politicians to users.
The policy now defaults to limiting political content, which many users said was not made clear initially. Instagram promised that “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.” Its announcement included a screenshot of the settings page where users could switch their accounts to no longer limit political content.
Another feature that Instagram failed to mention in its announcement was its “reduced by fact-checking” option. With that option, content that “has been reviewed by independent fact-checkers and found to contain false or partly false information, altered content, or missing context” will be shown less. This is part of Meta’s effort since 2018 to reduce misinformation.
Should a user decide to turn off this feature, a pop-up screen reads the warning, “You could see more content that’s false, altered, or partly false according to third-party fact-checkers, or from accounts that repeatedly share content reduced by fact-checking.” Users under the age of 18 are unable to turn the feature off completely.
“Meta/Instagram limited my ability to view ‘political content.’ Defined to include content re: ‘government, elections, or social topics that affect people or society,’” attorney Scott Hechinger wrote on X. “My ‘default’ setting was to censor. This is not okay.”
“Listen up! Instagram has automatically altered your settings to reduce political content on your feed. This is an obvious attempt to once again filter out conservative voices,” conservative commentator Tomi Lahren wrote. “Be sure to go into your Instagram settings and be sure your content preferences are actually chosen by you!”
“How convenient that Instagram limited “political content” aka conservative posts… just before the 2024 election,” comedian Tim Young wrote. “Make sure to change your settings if you’re on there.”
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At the time of Instagram’s announcement, former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson had recently aired his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin on X. Ever since it was acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, X has as a platform welcomed more political discussion by unbanning political figures like former President Donald Trump and talk show host Alex Jones.
Facebook and Instagram similarly restricted children’s accounts from being recommended even if their profiles were public back in January. This was an attempt to calm concerns about children’s safety on both platforms amid a congressional hearing with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
