More entertainment and fewer political posts.
This is the new line followed by Meta with two of its social networks, Instagram and Threads.
Manager Adam Mosseri, who runs Instagram, published a post on the company blog explaining the decision.
In practice, a new menu will be launched within the settings of the two platforms where users will be able to choose whether or not to limit suggested posts about political figures they do not follow.
Instead, you will continue to view the contents of politicians already followed, always based on the sorting of the Meta algorithm.
“We want Instagram and Threads to be a great experience for everyone,” Mosseri wrote, “so if you decide to follow accounts that post political content, we don't want to come between you and their posts, but we also don't want to proactively recommend political content from accounts that you don't follow."
Meta will limit suggestions related to these topics by default, with the update not affecting how people see posts from accounts they've chosen to follow.
“Our goal is to preserve users' ability to choose to engage with political content while respecting everyone's wishes.”
The move is just the latest in Meta trying to discourage users from discussing topics it considers potentially problematic.
The company already blocks "sensitive" words from search results, including terms related to vaccines and Covid.
It remains to be understood how social networks will consider "political" the posts of users not directly involved in the public debate.
In this regard, professionals will be able to use the "account status" function in the two apps to check whether their posts are considered biased and therefore eligible to be limited by subscribers.
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