On Friday, Instagram announced in a blog post that it will stop promoting political content from accounts that its users don’t follow. This change also affects Threads, an app similar to Twitter, which Instagram introduced last summer.
“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.”
Instagram will no longer suggest political content in sections like Explore, Reels, In-Feed Recommendations, and Suggested Users.
Meta has already been deprioritizing political content across its social apps, including on Facebook. “People have told us they want to see less political content, so we have spent the last few years refining our approach on Facebook to reduce the amount of political content — including from politicians’ accounts — you see in Feed, Reels, Watch, Groups You Should Join, and Pages You May Like,” the company explains in a post on its Transparency Center site.
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The blog also mentioned that professional account holders on Instagram can use the Account Status feature to check if their posts qualify for recommendations, particularly those who have shared political content recently. If Instagram has restricted recommendations for their posts, these users can edit or delete their recent posts to become eligible again or ask for a review if they disagree with the decision. Instagram advises that those flagged for political content might consider pausing such posts for a while to become recommendable once more.