Itā€™s been nearly a year since Instagram and Threads defaulted toĀ blocking recommendations of ā€œpoliticalā€ contentĀ from accounts you donā€™t already follow, butĀ now Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says, ā€œā€¦weā€™re going to be adding political content to recommendationsā€ on both platforms.

Thatā€™s a sharp turn fromĀ his statements in 2023laying out the goal of a ā€œless angry place for conversationsā€ that wouldnā€™t do anything to encourage politics or hard news. However, under Metaā€™s new approach to moderation ā€” and new rules aboutĀ what users can say on its platformsā€” that goal is going out the window just as the Trump administration prepares to take over.

Until now, users have had to opt-in to seeing recommendations of content deemed political, but the change rolling out this week in the US and to the rest of the world next week will turn on the recommendations and a content control setting available with options for less, standard (the default setting), and more.

In a series of Threads posts, MosseriĀ reiterated, ā€œIā€™ve maintained very publicly and for a long time that it not our place to show people political content from accounts they donā€™t follow,ā€ and that ā€œitā€™s proven impractical to draw a red line around what is and is not political content.ā€

In aĀ video on Instagram,Ā he said that the push for political content ā€” particularly from users on Threads ā€” is ā€œby the way, very different from the feedback we were getting only a few years ago about people feeling that they were overly exposed to political content on our platforms.ā€ Of course, according to theĀ Wall Street Journal, that was before Mark Zuckerberg experienced the effects of filters cutting down the reach of his post about recovering from a torn ACL and before Metaā€™s new and friendlier-to-Trump policy chief took over.

    • robalees@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      Ā·
      1 day ago

      Based on this list, any instances you recommend? I did Lemmy.world because I had no clue what I was doing. Just deleted FB and IG accounts, so Iā€™m ready for change!

      • kipo@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        Ā·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        Lemm.ee has been great to me. The instance owner and maintainer seems like a genuinely decent person. We refused to federate with threads but otherwise we federate with pretty much everyone and leave it up the user to decide what they want to be exposed to.

        • robalees@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          Ā·
          16 hours ago

          Thank you for the reply, checking out Lemm.ee and seeing how it goes. Looks like there is no official way to do it, but do you know of any way to export posts/comments from a Lemmy instance? Trying to decide if I delete this account or just leave it as is.

      • recursive_recursion they/them@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        Ā·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        Hereā€™s a couple that I think are good so far:

        Iā€™m recommending these based on:

        • threads blocked at minimum (fedipact being optimal)
        • good wholesome community activities and interactions
        • high number of trustworthy admins to provide you support and for content moderation (unless you like spam and zero-sum nonsense)
        • useful and cool local communities
        • my past exp with fellow moderators

        Some will be more or less useful or interesting to you so honestly feel free to choose whichever you think fits best for youšŸ¤—

        • robalees@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          Ā·
          16 hours ago

          Thank you for the reply, Iā€™ll definitely check some of these out. I am interested in fedipact if possible, but Iā€™m gonna give lemm.ee a go for a while. Same question as the other comment, do you know of any way to export posts/comments from a Lemmy instance? Trying to decide if I delete this account or just leave it as is.

          • recursive_recursion they/them@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            Ā·
            13 hours ago

            no worriesšŸ¤—

            Same question as the other comment, do you know of any way to export posts/comments from a Lemmy instance? Trying to decide if I delete this account or just leave it as is.

            Unfortunately as far as I know this isnā€™t yet possible, someone please correct me if Iā€™m wrong.


            Currently my suggestion is to create a 2-way-link via your profile:

            User profiles while on desktop browser

            User profiles while using Raccoon

            Currently the Voyager app doesnā€™t show profiles but your profile and links will show up on the Raccoon app
            Hope this somewhat helps!

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      Ā·
      2 days ago

      Thanks for sharing. Nice to know my Lemmy instance blocks them, but sad to see my Mastodon instance federating. I guess I should think about moving.