Itās been nearly a year since Instagram and Threads defaulted toĀ blocking recommendations of āpoliticalā contentĀ from accounts you donāt already follow, butĀ now Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says, āā¦weāre going to be adding political content to recommendationsā on both platforms.
Thatās a sharp turn fromĀ his statements in 2023laying out the goal of a āless angry place for conversationsā that wouldnāt do anything to encourage politics or hard news. However, under Metaās 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, āIāve maintained very publicly and for a long time that it not our place to show people political content from accounts they donāt follow,ā and that āitās 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 āby 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 Metaās new and friendlier-to-Trump policy chief took over.
Holy shit. Zuck/Mosseri are bowing to the Orange Idiot so much. I want to puke.
More like they were bowing to the previous administration. Political content is a top driver of engagement. Thereās no way they thought it was ever a good idea to suppress it.
Kissing the ketchup covered ring.
Tastes like hamburders and fascism.
Ketchup and shit