In February, the company announced it would be proactively screening political content from accounts, but stated that, “If you still want these posts recommended to you, you will have a control to see them.” Users would now have to opt-in to political and social content, otherwise it would not appear as recommended. Over the past week, political strategists noticed that the opt-in setting was turning itself off every time Meta apps were closed.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone wrote on Threads on June 26, “This was an error and should not have happened. We’re working on getting it fixed.” It was not stated how long the error had been going on.
Republican Members of Congress recently raised concerns over Meta’s new policy in a letter saying, “[w]e believe that opting out of ‘political and social content’ is a decision that should be made by the user, not the platform.” Co-authors Reps. Dan Crenshaw and August Pfluger, both of Texas, requested Meta explain the timing of the decision, the definition of “political and social content”, and how users will be alerted, among other questions. They requested a response to their questions by July 5.
On Instagram, Meta defines political content as, “likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large.”
The timing of this error so close to the first debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump raised concerns across the political spectrum. Nichole Gill, executive director of the advocacy group Accountable Tech, said in a statement, “Meta has just shown us all that with a flick of a switch, the company has the power to change algorithms and settings unbeknownst to users and creators with profound implications for the reach of content focused on political education, activism, and mobilization.”
The presidential debate is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 27.
NEW: One day before the first presidential debate, Instagram has reset all users settings to opt-out of political content.
Every time a user exits the app, they will have to go back into settings to opt-in to remove the political content limits.https://t.co/rZiMH7rl4h
— Kyle Tharp (@kylewilsontharp) June 26, 2024
