Adam Mosseri says Threads has had some issues with “low quality recommendations” over the last few weeks and should get “much better over the next few weeks”
Adam Mosseri says that Threads has had some issues with what he calls “low quality recommendations” over the last few weeks.
The VergeJay Peters
Context & Ripple Effects
Threads was built and shipped quickly as a bare-bones product, while Mosseri has described a broader ambition to make it a leading venue for public conversation. That makes feed quality a core product constraint rather than a cosmetic issue, especially for a service relying on discovery beyond a user’s existing network.
The report also foreshadows a later ranking shift toward posts from accounts users follow, which suggests Threads was still calibrating the trade-off between recommendation-driven discovery and relevance from established connections.
First-order effects
Threads users may see less relevant material until the recommendation issue is corrected; Mosseri says the feed should improve over the coming weeks.
Creators whose distribution depended on recommendations can see volatile reach while ranking inputs are adjusted.
Second-order effects
A weaker discovery feed raises the value of followed-account content and community participation as more dependable ways to reach users—a direction reflected in the later followed-content ranking rebalancing.
Product teams face a tighter quality-control burden: aggressive recommendation systems can increase exposure, but poor matches can reduce confidence in the service’s public-conversation ambition.
Third-order effects
If this pattern persists, Threads’ growth strategy will depend less on maximizing unconnected reach and more on tuning a hybrid feed that balances social-graph relevance with discovery.
Recommendation quality becomes a competitive differentiator for public-discussion platforms: the platform that can broaden distribution without degrading relevance is better positioned to retain both readers and creators.
The trend: Threads is part of a broader shift from launch-speed social products toward continual ranking calibration to reconcile algorithmic discovery with user trust and creator reach.
From this week's ask me anything on Instagram about recent low quality Threads recommendations. We're on it.
@tomwarrenuk
Tom Warren on threads
Now give us the option to keep the following feed as default.
@scottbeale
Scott Beale on threads
Glad to see this being addressed. What I would love to have is a “not interested” option that we can use improve what's being recommended to us.
@corndog_apologetics
Mae on threads
It's nice to know they're at least aware of and working on this. Dude looks stressed af compared to his normal posts lol
@admartinezjr
Angel D. Martinez on threads
Yes, this has been an issue lately. Glad to hear they're on it and hopefully correct it soon. Been seeing lots of junk post recommendations.
@mmcfly566
@mmcfly566 on threads
My personal favorite was “!”
@lozrex
Loz Rex on threads
RE: Threds pushing homophonic & transphobic right wing crap into our feeds. It's a start and there's a lot of work to do to combat the increasing nonsensically hate speech on here, but the transparency is appreciated 👍
@morganross524
Morgan Ross on threads
I would love a “Not interested” option to mute entire categories of posts — namely transphobia, hate speech, engagement farming and accounts that repost plagiarized content. I currently block these accounts, but that must count as an interaction because when I return to the app,…
@antookane
Anto O'Kane on threads
It's clear you have thousands of profiles whose only business is transphobic, misogynist, racist trolling. Like they do nothing else.
@edzitron
Ed Zitron on threads
Hi Adam. Any thoughts about the insane amounts of transphobia on here and stopping it?
@craiggrannell
Craig Grannell on threads
Learn from Mastodon. Give users control over their feeds by way of usable but powerful blocking and muting controls for everything from accounts to keywords. Allow them the *option* to see the Following feed by default.
@heilrath
Peter Heilrath on threads
Do you still think that politics shouldn't be discussed on threads? I saw your statement about that and strongly disagree, because talking about politics is just talking about the world we live in and a trustworthy platform for those discussions is desperately needed.
@honestly.wilde
Emery on threads
I “questionable” doesn't begin to cover it. I have LOST COUNT of the number of reports I have filed just in the last week or two with comments on my threads which are indisputable bullying, hate speech, and even one or two death threats. At least 3/4 of these accounts are still…
@john.lee.insta
John H Lee on threads
In the just five months I had perhaps one or two “babes” follow or reply. Looking at these, it was easy to block. In the past week or two, I've had a lot more all at once. Block block block. But shouldn't the algorithm be able to tell that an account is just sex bait and supp…
@parkermolloy
Parker Molloy on threads
I don't know if @threads is for me. I don't know what happened to this platform, but it's gotten toxic and WILDLY transphobic very, very, very fast. It feels deliberate. I just had someone in my replies saying that people like me need to be “eradicated.” Get that 4chan garbag…
@oneunderscore__
Ben Collins on threads
It's because the current political ideology of the American far-right is “invade the spaces where regular people have normal conversations and ruin them with hate.” Twitter is dead as that place, they think this is the new place, and bad algorithms amplify ragebait. …
@mmasnick
Michael Masnick on threads
Well, this is a good sign. But doesn't speak well of the people who claimed it was all my fault that I was seeing a ton of absolute garbage in my timeline. https://www.theverge.com/...
@robstahlnecker@mastodon.social
Rob Stahlnecker on mastodon
@Techmeme Threads has been rage baiting hard lately.
@shoq@mastodon.social
@shoq@mastodon.social on mastodon
Some comments are brutal. But I expected the Threads press to take a hit soon. The gush was misguided. The one thing about Threads, thus far, is that it bumped fediverse awareness a bit. — If Threads has felt different to you lately, you're not alone. - The Verge. HT @mmas…
@shannonfreshour.bsky.social
Shannon Freshour on bluesky
I had to delete threads because I couldn't figure out why I was “following” those accounts. I would block one and it be replaced by serval more — Social media in 2024 is bonkers. [embedded post]
@ishaav.bsky.social
Isha on bluesky
Please tell Adam that many people find (all) “recommendations” spurious at best.
@acidic.bsky.social
Andrew Macrae on bluesky
oh so it was a ‘quality’ issue, not a deliberate strategy to bait engagement [embedded post]
@rudell.bsky.social
Kirk Rudell on bluesky
Maybe some of this high quality content: www.theguardian.com/technology/ 2...
@mmasnick.bsky.social
Mike Masnick on bluesky
Earlier this week my Threads feed was full of extreme transphobic content that I kept blocking and it kept showing me more. I mentioned it on threads and had people yell at me how it was all my fault for not understanding how Threads works. [embedded post]
@thegoche.bsky.social
@thegoche.bsky.social on bluesky
Threads is going to start recommending Skeets? [embedded post]
@karlbode.bsky.social
Karl Bode on bluesky
yes we noticed [embedded post]
@glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden on bluesky
Recommendations are hard to do well. They depend a lot on the quality of the behavior data (wisdom of crowds fails with astroturf and shilling) and optimizing for the right metrics (not clicks please). It's easy to get it wrong. [embedded post]