Political posts on social media are almost impossible to avoid nowadays. However, that might change soon with a simple setting in Meta-owned platforms Instagram and Threads. While some at the top of Meta management aren’t in favor, Meta now allows users to limit the visibility of political posts on their Instagram and Threads feeds.
Recently, Meta applied a restriction on Canadian news for all Canadian users due to the Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18. According to reports, users received no notification about this ban, which led to many complaining about censorship.
You can now choose to hide political posts on Instagram and Threads
Meta has introduced a new setting in the Instagram app and simultaneously in the Threads app. Through it, users can limit recommendations of political content. According to Meta, this new feature isn’t for restricting political content. On the contrary, the feature aims to give users the choice to hide political content if they want. This change comes during a year when the US, Canada, and other countries are going through elections.
Users can head to Content Preferences in Account Settings to find this option on Instagram. Interestingly, Instagram has the option enabled by default, even for those who are unaware of it. This decision by Meta means even if you wish to see political content, this setting limits those posts by default. To show the posts, head to the settings and disable the same option.
While Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed to The Verge that Meta started rolling the feature out a week ago, users weren’t alerted that the setting is set to on by default. The setting set to limit by default has caused much uproar and fueled the “Meta censorship” gossip.
Will this setting cause more harm than good?
In the age of social media, most people get all their news from such apps. Meta apps are one of the most popular and used apps on the planet, and while many use them for entertainment, these apps are also a medium for news. Since Facebook News is shutting down in the US and Australia after its closure in Europe, many users primarily use Instagram and Threads for their news fix.
Limiting political posts can be harmful, especially for those who only receive news from creators and profiles they follow on Instagram and Threads. Fortunately, giving users the choice to limit these posts is not an issue. If someone does not want to see political posts, then it is their right to be able to restrict them. However, turning the setting on by default and not alerting users caused unnecessary confusion.
This feature has its fair share of other problems. It seems like Instagram and Threads are accidentally censoring some posts that aren’t news-related but got caught in the crossfire. If users don’t see the content they like because they’ve enabled the political post-restricting setting, they’ll likely switch it off.
