“Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to choose to interact with political content, while respecting each person’s appetite for it,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote.

Is politics a major buzzkill? Instagram execs seem to think so.

In a blog post Friday, Instagram, the popular photo and video app owned by Meta, said it will no longer “proactively recommend” political content from accounts that users do not already follow. The same policy applies to Threads, the Twitter-copycat app launched last summer under the Instagram brand.

“We want Instagram and Threads to be a great experience for everyone,” it said. “If you decide to follow accounts that post political content, we don’t want to get between you and their posts, but we also don’t want to proactively recommend political content from accounts you don’t follow.”

By default, going forward Instagram and Threads will not promote political content (unless it’s from accounts users already are following). Both apps will add a setting to let users who still want to see political content recommendations opt to do so — and, according the post, the same control will roll out on Facebook at a later date. Instagram defines “political content” as “potentially related to things like laws, elections or social topics.”

  • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
    453·
    5 months ago

    “All content by and about queer people or people of color is political. Enjoy your content by and about straight white men.”

    • squiblet@kbin.social
      3·
      5 months ago

      I’d bet anything about labor unions is ‘political’ but some shit article like ‘work from home is bad for your mental health’ is not.

  • BurningnnTree@lemmy.oneEnglish
    13·
    5 months ago

    This is a good step forward, assuming that the algorithm is good at determining what counts as political content. However I’m not sure how effective this will be when users still have the ability to opt back in to political recommendations.

    • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
      31·
      5 months ago

      As much as I hate Facebook. Allowing users to opt back in is the right move. Reddit would’ve forced it onto everyone.

      • squiblet@kbin.social
        2·
        4 months ago

        Same. Facebook is of course horrible and has been a net loss for humankind, but Reddit and Elron Musk have managed to demonstrate that things could be even worse.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
      1·
      5 months ago

      I’m sure the algorithm will do a passable but terrible job, like their AI moderation. The problem I see is it gives them further excuses about censoring certain topics from people’s feed, while allowing through the political speech they want people to see.

  • BossDj@lemm.ee
    12·
    5 months ago

    Figure out real fast where you fit in the political spectrum when you decide that some civil rights are just politics

  • squiblet@kbin.social
    11·
    5 months ago

    Well, no shit. That’s why I finally stopped using Facebook - they were obsessed with filling my feed with political bullshit that I had no interest in (e.g. people from my work or friends’ parents jerking off about how great Trump is - absolutely no good for me to interact with that).

    • HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world
      8·
      5 months ago

      I left Facebook in 2020. 4 years of that trump shit I was just tapped out when covid pandemic conspiracy shit hit

      I barely use instagram since then as well

      • squiblet@kbin.social
        4·
        5 months ago

        I think 2020 was it for me too. I had already stopped visiting more than once every 2-3 months but 2020 was when I finally said wow, fuck this. Some guy who I had to work with professionally - he was actually a show director for a trade show we attended each year - posted a pic, in all seriousness, about how the covid test put a microchip up your nose. Thanks Facebook, I really needed to learn about that. Well, fair warning about the guy I guess. Then I tried to sign into my account just for maintenance in 2023 and though I’d used a linked IG account fairly regularly, and obviously they could tell, it said that I needed to upload my driver’s license to sign into Facebook. Like, who do they think there are? No.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
    8·
    5 months ago

    Y’all, it’s just about the recommendation system. It’s not like they are banning politics or politicians (I’m looking at you, X), and you must understand the feed is already dominated by boosted garbage anyway (especially after they added reels). People already hate and generally ignore things from people they don’t follow.

    That said, I avoid IG ever since I did a part time job running accounts, and that shit was soul crushing. I just don’t like folks acting like everything is a conspiracy on Lemmy-- this ain’t 4chan. IG really just needs a better recommendation algorithm, ideally one focused image sharing (although that enshittification ship has sailed).

    • squiblet@kbin.social
      3·
      5 months ago

      10-12 years ago IG had a different feel but at this point it’s just generic social media like anything else, plus they also tried to copy Snapchat and TikTok, which has a lot of political content.