Earlier this yr, Meta made the controversial determination to mechanically restrict political content material from customers’ suggestions in Threads and Instagram by default. The corporate mentioned that it didn’t wish to “proactively amplify” political posts and that customers might opt-in through their Instagram settings in the event that they did wish to see such content material.
However, it seems, that Meta continued to restrict political content material even for customers who had opted in to seeing it. An unspecified “error” apparently prompted the “political content” toggle — already buried a number of layers deep into Instagram’s settings menu — to revert again to the “limit” setting every time the app closed. Political content material, in keeping with Meta, “is likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large.”
The problem was flagged by Threads customers, together with Democratic strategist Keith Edwards, and confirmed by Engadget. It’s unclear how lengthy the “error” was affecting customers’ suggestions. “This was an error and should not have happened,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone wrote on Threads. “We’re working on getting it fixed.” Meta didn’t reply to questions on how lengthy the setting had not been working correctly.
The problem is prone to increase questions on Meta’s stance on political content material. Although Threads is commonly in comparison with X, the corporate has taken an aggressive stance on content material moderation, limiting the visibility of political content material and outright blocking “potentially sensitive” matters, together with something associated to COVID-19, from search outcomes.
Stone later confirmed that the supposed bug had been mounted. “Earlier today, we identified an error in which people’s selections in the Instagram political content settings tool mistakenly appeared to have reset even though no change had actually been made,” he wrote on Threads. “The issue has now been fixed and we encourage people to check and make sure their settings reflect their preferences.”
Replace June 26, 2024, 8:04 Pm ET: Added further feedback from Meta spokesperson Andy Stone.