In a blog post in February, Meta, the owner of Instagram, announced their plans to remove organic political content from the recommendation surfaces on both Instagram and Threads. Their aim is to avoid recommending political content from accounts you don't follow while still allowing you to see the posts from accounts you do follow. This feature has now been officially rolled out.
What this means is that if you follow someone's account, you will continue to see their content as usual. But if you don't follow someone, you may not see their politically focused content because Meta won't recommend it to you. This filtering applies to various politically focused posts, including those related to laws, elections, and social topics. Meta's intention is to filter out such posts from anywhere they recommend content on Instagram or Threads, such as explore, Reels, in-feed recommendations, and suggested users.
Meta also have plans to extend this feature to Facebook in the future. This could pose a problem for those who rely on social media as a news source, especially during an election year when approximately 50% of Americans do so.
By default, Meta has enabled this feature. However, if you want to see political content in your Instagram feed, you can easily update your preferences. To start seeing political content on Instagram again, follow these steps:
1. Go to your profile page within the Instagram app.
2. Tap on the hamburger menu icon (three lines stacked on top of each other) located at the top right corner of the page .
3.You’ll want to scroll all the way down to “Content Preferences” and then select “Political Content.”
4.Within the Political Content menu, you’ll want to select the “Don’t limit political content from people you don’t follow” option if you’d like to see those political posts recommended again.
As the digital landscape undergoes constant changes in the political realm, JCD Consulting remains dedicated to staying at the forefront of these developments. Our primary goal is to ensure that our clients are will-informed and equipped with the latest insights. By continuously monitoring and adapting, we strive to provide cutting-edge strategies and solutions that align with the political environment.