Instagram, Threads no longer recommending political content

Instagram and Threads will no longer actively promote political content, Instagram announced Friday.

“We want Instagram and Threads to be great experiences for everyone,” the social media platform said in a press release.

“If you decide to follow an account that posts political content, we don’t want to get between you and that posting, but we do I also don’t want to actively recommend it,” he added.

Where we recommend content to users, such as Explore, Reels, In-Feed Recommendations, and Suggested Users, we don’t recommend political content unless you change your settings to allow it.

Instagram emphasized that this does not affect how content from accounts users follow appears.

“Even if political content, which may be related to law, elections, social topics, etc., is posted by a non-recommended account, that account’s content can still reach followers in feeds and Stories. ” Instagram pointed out.

In a thread, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the policy changes were aimed at “preserving people’s ability to choose how they interact with political content, while respecting each individual’s desire for political content.” “That is,” he said.

After launching Threads last year, Mosseri similarly stressed that he would not “do anything to encourage” politics or hard news on the platform.

“Politics and hard news are important, and I’m not trying to imply otherwise,” Mosseri said last July. “But from a platform’s perspective, the increased engagement and revenue it generates simply isn’t worth the attendant scrutiny, negativity (and let’s be honest), and integrity risks. That’s my idea.”