(Web Desk) - Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Threads, has announced new measures to limit the visibility of political content on its platforms.
In a recent blog post, Meta revealed plans to expand its existing policy, which restricts the appearance of political and social issue-related posts in recommended feeds for users not following those accounts, to encompass both Threads and Instagram.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, stated that the aim is to give users more control over their interaction with political content while respecting individual preferences.
These changes will be implemented gradually over the coming weeks, with Facebook expected to follow suit at a later date.
Under the new policy, users will have the option to enable or disable recommendations for content related to governments, elections, and societal issues affecting groups of people.
These adjustments will only affect public accounts and will primarily impact recommended content areas such as Explore, Reels, in-feed recommendations, and suggested user lists.
Notably, this update will not alter how users see content from accounts they actively follow, allowing those accounts to continue posting political content to their followers as usual.
In upcoming changes announced by Meta, creators on Instagram will face stricter guidelines regarding the recommendation of their content.
Under the new policy, if an account is deemed ineligible for recommendation, none of its content will be suggested to users, irrespective of its adherence to platform guidelines.
Professional accounts will gain access to the Account Status feature to monitor the impact of posting political content on their eligibility for recommendation.
They can contest decisions that revoke this eligibility and manage politically related posts accordingly. These updates align with Meta's ongoing efforts to distance itself from the realms of news and politics.
Recent data from Facebook indicates that less than 3 percent of content seen by US users is politically themed.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, has emphasized that political content will not be actively promoted on platforms like Threads or Instagram due to its limited engagement potential and the potential for negative backlash, especially with the 2024 presidential election looming.