Claim:
Posts on social media have claimed that Instagram, owned by Meta, is diminishing political content on its platform just in time for the presidential election.
Reasoning:
Instagram is indeed changing the way it treats political content, but it isn’t restricting it. Users will still see political content from accounts they follow and can elect to opt out of the platform’s other changes.
On February 9, 2024, Meta announced that it would be extending Facebook’s existing approach of not proactively recommending political content to users to also cover both Instagram and Threads. Users of the two platforms will no longer have political content promoted to them by the platform’s algorithms—but the changes will not affect how users experience content from accounts they already follow.
Instagram typically promotes content to users from accounts they don’t already follow through in-feed recommendations, on its Reels and Explore pages, and by suggesting accounts to follow. Under the new approach, these various “recommendation surfaces” will no longer promote posts or accounts that mention governments, elections, or broad social topics. Users will still see political content posted by accounts they follow and can also opt out of the new content restrictions through the app’s content preference settings.
Fact or Fiction?
Fiction. While Instagram is changing the way it promotes political content, it is not diminishing or restricting it. Users will continue to see political content from accounts they follow, and they have the option to opt out of the platform’s changes. The claim lacks context and misrepresents the changes Instagram is implementing.
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