Users of Threads and Instagram will no longer be able to avoid seeing political content from accounts they don’t follow.
As per BBC, Meta claims this change is part of its shift towards promoting “free expression.”
This shift includes the decision to stop using fact-checkers, who were previously responsible for verifying the truth of content.
Users will no longer have the option to completely avoid receiving political posts but they will be able to adjust how much political content appears in the feed by selecting three settings: “less,” “standard,” or “more.”
The head of the two platforms Adam Mosseri had earlier expressed that he was against showing news and political content on these platforms.
However, he now says that users have requested to see more of this type of content.
In the meantime, Drew Benvie, chief executive of social media consultancy Battenhall, doubts Mosseri’s explanation for the increase in political content.
Benvie suggests that the real reason for this change is not because users asked, but because of shifting political circumstances in the US.
Moreover, he further predicted that the changes on Meta platforms could lead users to switch to other social media platforms.
This change will first be applied to users in the United States this week, and will be rolled out to users worldwide in the coming days.
