Users Shocked To Find Instagram Limits Political Content By Default

Instagram has been limiting recommended political content by default without notifying users. Ars Technica reports: Instead, Instagram rolled out the change in February, announcing in a blog that the platform doesn't 'want to proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow.' That post confirmed that Meta 'won't proactively recommend content about politics on recommendation surfaces across Instagram and Threads,' so that those platforms can remain 'a great experience for everyone.' 'This change does not impact posts from accounts people choose to follow; it impacts what the system recommends, and people can control if they want more,' Meta's spokesperson Dani Lever told Ars. 'We have been working for years to show people less political content based on what they told us they want, and what posts they told us are political.'

To change the setting, users can navigate to Instagram's menu for 'settings and activity' in their profiles, where they can update their 'content preferences.' On this menu, 'political content' is the last item under a list of 'suggested content' controls that allow users to set preferences for what content is recommended in their feeds. There are currently two options for controlling what political content users see. Choosing 'don't limit' means 'you might see more political or social topics in your suggested content,' the app says. By default, all users are set to 'limit,' which means 'you might see less political or social topics.' 'This affects suggestions in Explore, Reels, Feed, Recommendations, and Suggested Users,' Instagram's settings menu explains. 'It does not affect content from accounts you follow. This setting also applies to Threads.' 'Did [y'all] know Instagram was actively limiting the reach of political content like this?!' an X user named Olayemi Olurin wrote in an X post. 'I had no idea 'til I saw this comment and I checked my settings and sho nuff political content was limited.'

'This is actually kinda wild that Instagram defaults everyone to this,' another user wrote. 'Obviously political content is toxic but during an election season it's a little weird to just hide it from everyone?'

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