Texas Rep. August Pflueger (R) expressed concern in a letter to Meta on Tuesday about the platform's decision to automatically opt out of users from political content, saying the platform's users should He argued that they should be able to make that decision.
“I write this letter to reiterate my concerns about Meta Platforms, Inc.'s actions in proactively opting out users.
of political and social content across all platforms. I strongly believe that users should have:
“You have the right to decide whether you want to opt out of 'political and social content,' not on the platform,” Pflueger said in a statement to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO ) sent a letter to Mr. Javier Oliván.
“By automatically opting out users, Meta actively throttles their ability to access this.
“The information should be your choice,” the letter says.
Pfluger referenced another letter sent by Meta in July, in which the platform said its decisions were based on feedback from users.
“People have told us they want less political content, so we've been refining our approach on Facebook in recent years to reduce the amount of political content,” Mehta said. wrote.
In a July letter, Mehta defined political content as “any content that is likely to be about government or election-related topics, even if the content is satirical, comedic, or journalistic.” It also includes posts related to law and elections.
Instagram started this practice earlier this year, saying users must go to the app's settings and turn off the restrictions feature. Instagram's move raised concerns among content creators and advocacy groups about what issues it would include.
Pflueger also sent a letter on Instagram in June expressing concerns about Mehta's decision, which he mentioned in Tuesday's letter.
“In our first letter, we explained that Meta's policies hinder the ability of elected officials to serve their constituents by restricting content. “The very foundation of informed citizenship is undermined by the inability of citizens to stay informed about the actions of their institutions and officials,” Pflueger wrote in his latest letter.
Pflueger urged Mehta to rescind the policy, especially given the importance of an election year.
“Particularly concerning is that META has chosen to pursue this decision in an election year, when citizens are more receptive to political and social content to stay informed of issues,” it added.
The Hill has reached out to Mehta for comment.
