As the 2024 U.S. election approaches, social media platforms are making efforts to minimize past mistakes that contributed to the spread of misinformation and fueled political tensions.
After facing criticism for their handling of political disinformation and extremism, many platforms have implemented stricter rules and regulations. Meta, for example, announced in November that it would require political advertisers to disclose digitally altered ads, including those generated by AI.
Recently, Instagram and Threads announced in a blog post that they would no longer actively recommend political content from accounts users don’t follow. While users can still choose to follow accounts that share political content, they will have control over whether they see such content in their recommendations in the future.
These changes will affect how political content is recommended on public accounts and in sections such as Explore, Reels, In-Feed Recommendations, and Suggested Users. However, content from ineligible accounts can still appear in followers’ feeds and stories.
Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, explained in a post on Threads that the platform aims to maintain users’ ability to engage with political content while respecting individual preferences. The rollout of these changes will occur gradually.
