Earlier this year, Meta made the controversial decision to remove political content from users’ recommendations on Threads and Instagram by default. The company said it didn’t want to “aggressively amplify” political posts and that users could opt-in via Instagram settings if they wanted to see such content.
But it turns out Meta continued to restrict political content, even for users who chose to view it. Apparently, an unspecified “error” was causing the “Political Content” toggle, already buried deep in Instagram’s settings menu, to revert to the “Restrict” setting every time the app was closed. According to Meta, political content “is more likely to mention government, elections, or social topics that affect certain groups or society as a whole.”
The issue was reported by Threads users, including Democratic strategists, and confirmed by Engadget. It’s unclear how long the “error” affected users’ recommendations. “This was an error and should not have happened,” Meta spokesman Andy Stone wrote. “We’re working on a fix.” Meta did not respond to questions about how long the setting hadn’t been working properly for.
The issue is likely to call into question Meta’s stance on political content. Threads is often compared to X, which has taken a more aggressive stance on content moderation, restricting political content and apparently “potentially sensitive” topics from search results, including those related to COVID-19.
