Meta plans to not “proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow” on Threads, matching the company's policy on Facebook and Instagram
including this feed. … Seth Abramson / @seth.abramson : Now that Threads has announced it will throttle political content, please do, when/as possible: 1. Repost political content you find informative; 2. tag political accounts you write about so people can easily click to/follow them; 3. post “feed recommendation lists” for your readers … Matthew Cortland / @matthewcortland : Alright, so I owe an apology to everyone to whom I recommended Threads. You, your organization, your principal, your outlet, your group shouldn't invest time in Threads if you are writing about anything the algo-behind-the-curtain may consider political. … David Heath / @david.heath.writer : Political creators fled to Threads hoping to find a safe space for critical discussions. It's so unfortunate that you've decided - for reasons you haven't articulated - to betray those of us who trusted you and built an audience here. Posting thoughtful content is labor intensive and free for you. … John Iadarola / @johniadarola : You're proactively suppressing one type of content in favor of content the powerful find acceptable. That's all this is. @nuanuamiao : Great. Now you're ruining the only place that has not been polluted by China Wumao. Could we Taiwanese have a peace of mind on Meta? You've ruined Facebook and Instagram for hiring a Chinese team to do censorship on Taiwanese people. Josh Pfleger-Bernat / @josh.pbernat : Political content is one of the main thing I come on to engage with. If that were to go away I have no reason to be on this platform. Those are the conversations I have the most investment in. There are certain things people want to get out of a microblogging platform, and created conditions around what kind of content they can see and engage with would kill the platform. … Luis Zaldivar / @masiosare : So if we don't see the news, they don't exist and they don't affect me, right? Lisa Zhito / @litzz11_ : Why don't you guys let us curate our own timelines? Why do I have to switch from “For You” to “Following” EVERY SINGLE TIME I COME HERE. Why can't I just make it “Following” as my PERMANENT preference? Stop treating your users like children. We know how we want our pages to look. … Isaias Hernandez / @queerbrownvegan : It's counterintuitive for governments wanting to engage with young people to vote knowing that many of us who politically engage with marginalized communities to vote yet I see the constant amplification of climate deniers, anti-vax, and misinformation from wellness / spiritual communities blowing up. I wish instagram boosted content that was factual. Shauna Wright / @goldengateblond : please clarify what qualifies as “political.” climate change news? news about vaccines and pandemics? human rights? there are a lot of important things happening that overlap with politics but people still need to be aware of. Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz : I'm actually very sympathetic to Facebook's position, bc for years a lot of media and high profile people incl lawmakers have begged FB to crack down on “disinformation” and lambasted the platform for playing a role in politics. I think a lot of that criticism has been unfair, but the answer to that is not to artificially restrict political speech! … Jason Goldman / @goldman : I am skeptical that any significant internet audience wants a “choose your own algorithm feature” but I will say it is good advertising for Bluesky for Meta to be like “actually the algo hates politics now.” Casey Newton / @crumbler : I know that Threads downranks political posts but let me just say: most hotel carpet was not designed to work with roller bags Adam Mosseri / @mosseri : One thing that seems lost in the chatter today about this is we *already* do this. What's changing is we're improving how well we do it, and we're offering an opt-out. Vanessa Otero / @vanessa_lea_otero : Hot take: this is good, actually. For people complaining that it's hard to define what's “political,” sure, some cases are, but mostly, it's quite feasible. This policy should reduce one of the most toxic algorithmic features, which is that you follow someone political but reasonable but then get recommended far more extreme versions of their viewpoints. Rachel Sterling / @racsterls : On the one hand this feels like a responsible approach: we know that bad actors manipulate Facebook's appetite for growth through well documented growth hacking maneuvers. On the other hand this decision risks further isolating people in their echo chambers without a path for them to discover alternative points of view from people they don't follow. … Rachel Gilmore / @r.gilmore : Nice to know that as a journalist who works incredibly hard to create valuable and trusted news content that I post on Meta platforms, I'm probably gonna be shadowbanned as a result of said work! But hey, at least you'll have clout farming bots keeping your timeline nice and busy. … Fred Wellman / @fpwellmanofficial : It says a lot about @mosseri that Threads has decided people should have to opt in to see “political” posts but you can't opt out of the absolute flood of OnlyFans and porn that has infested this platform since it launched. Sherrilyn Ifill / @sherrilynifill : Why? Doesn't make sense. Being an informed citizen requires running across and reading news sources you might not have picked for yourself. What's precipitating this change? Judd Legum / @realjuddlegum : This is embarassing spin. What you are doing is ACTIVELY SUPPRESSING political content. You are treating political content one way and all other content another way. Chris Geidner / @chrisgeidner : So, it's opt-in to allow people to engage with current events. Based on boosted post ads on IG that I've had rejected in promoting Law Dork, this is a broad definition that includes, essentially, talking about today's world. Dustin Moskovitz / @moskov : Everyone: Facebook has way, way, WAY too much influence on politics Facebook: we have made a change to have less influence on politics Everyone: 😡 Karissa / @karissabe : A Meta spokesperson on its definition of “political” content: Our definition of political content is content likely to be about topics related to government or elections; for example, posts about laws, elections, or social topics. … Alex Howard / @digiphile : In a statement to @axios, @meta said it won't recommend “political content” on @threads or @instagram from accounts we don't follow https://www.axios.com/... On the one hand, algorithmic recs are where @Facebook has had massive trouble, like @YouTube. … Simon Owens / @simondowens : It's extremely weird that tech platforms insist on forcing algorithmic recommendations on us, justifying it by saying that the algorithm is determining what we truly want to consume, but then just arbitrarily decide that they'll exclude certain types of content from the algorithm because they don't want to deal with it. https://www.axios.com/... Tim Blasko / @blaskblast : I dunno, that's one of my biggest complaints about Instagram. I'd use it a lot more often if I could turn off the content I don't want to see. I end up scrolling through 70% of the content to see the 30% I want. It's a massively bad user experience when you think about it. Mastodon: Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social : Meta is downranking/hiding political content on Threads. The company says Threads will “not recommend any content/accounts that post about politics.” — Here's the issue: what counts as “politics” is often any news abt people who have had their whole existence politicized, such as news about Black people, LGBTQ people, disabled ppl, women, etc. … Bluesky: Ian Betteridge / @ianbetteridge.com : Maybe they should just not recommend content from people I don't follow at all. [embedded post] X: Jesse Walker / @notjessewalker : Rule of thumb: The more a social media platform depends on an “algorithm that suggests content,” the less likely I am to want to use it. https://www.axios.com/... Sara Fischer / @sarafischer : NEW: Meta won't recommend political content on Threads https://www.axios.com/... Forums: Hacker News : Instagram and Threads will no longer recommend political content r/technology : Instagram and Threads will no longer recommend political content | Users will need to opt-in via the apps' settings to see political posts in their suggestions. BeauHD / Slashdot : Instagram and Threads Will Stop Recommending Political Content
AxiosSara Fischer
Context & Ripple Effects
Threads was already working through problems with low-quality recommendations, making changes to what its recommendation system amplifies central to the product’s development. Meta is extending to Threads an approach it had established on Facebook and Instagram rather than creating a Threads-only rule.
The policy makes recommendation design—not merely moderation—the key distribution control for political material. Later complaints that a political-content limit was enabled by default for some users underscore how much the setting’s implementation can shape reach.
First-order effects
Political accounts that rely on discovery beyond their follower base will receive less algorithmic distribution on Threads, while users who want fewer such recommendations can avoid them through Meta’s control.
Meta brings Threads’ treatment of political recommendations into line with Facebook and Instagram, standardizing the company’s product policy across its social apps.
Second-order effects
Political publishers, advocates, and creators have a stronger incentive to build direct follows and use reposts, tags, and curated feeds rather than depend on the For You-style recommendation surface.
Rival social platforms can position more open political discovery or clearer user-controlled feeds as a differentiator for users whose engagement depends on public-affairs content.
Third-order effects
If this approach persists, platform governance will increasingly be expressed through ranking defaults and recommendation eligibility, shifting power over civic reach from individual posts to product settings.
The durability of that shift will depend on whether platforms make these controls legible and genuinely user-directed; opaque defaults can turn a nominal preference tool into a de facto distribution rule.
The trend: Social platforms are moving political-content governance upstream into recommendation systems and user feed controls, rather than relying solely on post-level moderation.
If you follow political accounts on Threads or Instagram, we want to avoid getting between you and their content. That said, we also don't want to proactively amplify political content from accounts you don't follow. To that end, we're extending our existing approach to how we …
Whatever happened to “In the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies. We have based ours on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scruti…
Since we're back on the debate about how Meta/Threads handles political content I thought I'd resurface the piece I wrote last July when this first came up. The TL;DR - Platforms can run but can't hide from politics. https://anchorchange.substack.com/ ...
Restricting the reach of “social commentary” and political content does NOT mean FB plays a “smaller role in that part of society”. It simply means Meta will continue to influence the political landscape but in a very harmful way to marginalized groups. Also, please actually us…
Also actually happened. Meta needs to get used to telling the right people to go fuck themselves and quit trying to be apolitical during rising fascism. Elon Musk basically cleared Twitter for fascists. @Zuck and @mosseri can answer any way they want.
This is honestly a good question. Meta shoots itself in the foot by being too open way too often. Yes I know the upsides of being open but as long as we live in a reactionary news world, the downsides of being open are greater and it's a net negative.
And sure, “people can opt out” but no one does that! These restrictions would be fine if they were off by default, but the fact that the default is that “social commentary” and “political content” is restricted just creates a deep chilling effect on speech, and penalizes margina…
This is the big issue I have w Meta's overbearing and blunt moderation policies and the way they restrict content. What counts as a “political” post is almost always any sort of news about people who have had their whole identities politicized, such as POC, LGBTQ people, disable…
If Meta is going to throttle down (or whatever they do) political content accounts, that's fine. Whatever. But it would be great if they waited to implement lists first. Or put more controls in the hands of the users. It would be very helpful.
My takeaway from this announcement is that Meta is prioritizing vibes over news. So much social media toxicity and hostility stems from people interacting with political POVs that are contrary to their own. They seem to want to minimize that downside by minimizing the cause of …
This is Facebook surrendering an absolutely critical component of the “public square” they like to talk about to Elon Musk and the wasteland of Twitter.
*Meta recommends political content* Gets accused for years about destabilizing democracy and rigging elections *Doesn't recommend political content but still gives you the option to opt-in* Comments - “But what about WHAT I WANT? What about democracy?” Can't win in social media…
Meta: we will be showing less political content in order to play a smaller role in that part of society Xitter: actually, we will be showing *more* political content, and it will be explicitly conservative and explicitly anti-liberal content TikTok: hey hey, we are apartisan! we …
Threads is changing its algorithm: You will no longer see content created or written by political people. Yesterday, I waited in the cold for eighteen hours to secure a seat in the Supreme Court. I'm the definition of a political person. If this post lands on your timeline, le…
NOTE TO READERS: It's about to become *exponentially* more important for readers on Threads to actively recommend the political feeds they find most useful. Threads is no longer going to do that work, so if you see political content on the platform that you think deserves a broa…
Now that Threads has announced it will throttle political content, please do, when/as possible: 1. Repost political content you find informative; 2. tag political accounts you write about so people can easily click to/follow them; 3. post “feed recommendation lists” for your rea…
Alright, so I owe an apology to everyone to whom I recommended Threads. You, your organization, your principal, your outlet, your group shouldn't invest time in Threads if you are writing about anything the algo-behind-the-curtain may consider political. …
Political creators fled to Threads hoping to find a safe space for critical discussions. It's so unfortunate that you've decided - for reasons you haven't articulated - to betray those of us who trusted you and built an audience here. Posting thoughtful content is labor intensi…
Great. Now you're ruining the only place that has not been polluted by China Wumao. Could we Taiwanese have a peace of mind on Meta? You've ruined Facebook and Instagram for hiring a Chinese team to do censorship on Taiwanese people.
Political content is one of the main thing I come on to engage with. If that were to go away I have no reason to be on this platform. Those are the conversations I have the most investment in. There are certain things people want to get out of a microblogging platform, and cre…
Why don't you guys let us curate our own timelines? Why do I have to switch from “For You” to “Following” EVERY SINGLE TIME I COME HERE. Why can't I just make it “Following” as my PERMANENT preference? Stop treating your users like children. We know how we want our pages to l…
It's counterintuitive for governments wanting to engage with young people to vote knowing that many of us who politically engage with marginalized communities to vote yet I see the constant amplification of climate deniers, anti-vax, and misinformation from wellness / spiritual c…
please clarify what qualifies as “political.” climate change news? news about vaccines and pandemics? human rights? there are a lot of important things happening that overlap with politics but people still need to be aware of.
I'm actually very sympathetic to Facebook's position, bc for years a lot of media and high profile people incl lawmakers have begged FB to crack down on “disinformation” and lambasted the platform for playing a role in politics. I think a lot of that criticism has been unfair, b…
I am skeptical that any significant internet audience wants a “choose your own algorithm feature” but I will say it is good advertising for Bluesky for Meta to be like “actually the algo hates politics now.”
One thing that seems lost in the chatter today about this is we *already* do this. What's changing is we're improving how well we do it, and we're offering an opt-out.
Hot take: this is good, actually. For people complaining that it's hard to define what's “political,” sure, some cases are, but mostly, it's quite feasible. This policy should reduce one of the most toxic algorithmic features, which is that you follow someone political but reas…
On the one hand this feels like a responsible approach: we know that bad actors manipulate Facebook's appetite for growth through well documented growth hacking maneuvers. On the other hand this decision risks further isolating people in their echo chambers without a path for th…
Nice to know that as a journalist who works incredibly hard to create valuable and trusted news content that I post on Meta platforms, I'm probably gonna be shadowbanned as a result of said work! But hey, at least you'll have clout farming bots keeping your timeline nice and bus…
It says a lot about @mosseri that Threads has decided people should have to opt in to see “political” posts but you can't opt out of the absolute flood of OnlyFans and porn that has infested this platform since it launched.
Why? Doesn't make sense. Being an informed citizen requires running across and reading news sources you might not have picked for yourself. What's precipitating this change?
This is embarassing spin. What you are doing is ACTIVELY SUPPRESSING political content. You are treating political content one way and all other content another way.
So, it's opt-in to allow people to engage with current events. Based on boosted post ads on IG that I've had rejected in promoting Law Dork, this is a broad definition that includes, essentially, talking about today's world.
A Meta spokesperson on its definition of “political” content: Our definition of political content is content likely to be about topics related to government or elections; for example, posts about laws, elections, or social topics. …
In a statement to @axios, @meta said it won't recommend “political content” on @threads or @instagram from accounts we don't follow https://www.axios.com/... On the one hand, algorithmic recs are where @Facebook has had massive trouble, like @YouTube. …
It's extremely weird that tech platforms insist on forcing algorithmic recommendations on us, justifying it by saying that the algorithm is determining what we truly want to consume, but then just arbitrarily decide that they'll exclude certain types of content from the algorithm…
I dunno, that's one of my biggest complaints about Instagram. I'd use it a lot more often if I could turn off the content I don't want to see. I end up scrolling through 70% of the content to see the 30% I want. It's a massively bad user experience when you think about it.
Meta is downranking/hiding political content on Threads. The company says Threads will “not recommend any content/accounts that post about politics.” — Here's the issue: what counts as “politics” is often any news abt people who have had their whole existence politicized, such…
Rule of thumb: The more a social media platform depends on an “algorithm that suggests content,” the less likely I am to want to use it. https://www.axios.com/...
Instagram and Threads will no longer recommend political content | Users will need to opt-in via the apps' settings to see political posts in their suggestions.