Meta Begins to Limit Political Content Recommendations on Instagram and Threads

Meta limits recommendations on political content (photo: dock. Meta)

JAKARTA – Last February, Meta announced that they wanted to reduce political content recommendations on Instagram and Threads. Now, arrangements for limiting political content are starting to be implemented.

Meta has launched an opt-out setting to limit political content from unfollowed accounts. This restriction is enabled by default and users must turn the setting off if they want to continue getting political content.

The limitations of this recommendation can be seen in the Instagram settings section. Open Settings first, then look for the Suggested Content menu. After that, click on the Political Content section, and the Limit Political Content option will be visible.

As long as content restrictions are applied, users can still view political content from the accounts they follow. However, if users want to see more political content, they can switch to the Don't limit political content from other accounts option.

Meta explained that, "This (setting) affects recommendations in Explore, Reels, Feed Recommendations, and Suggested Users. It will not affect the content of followed accounts."

Although this setting can only be accessed on Instagram, the system in Threads will also be affected. The reason is, Threads is a text-based application developed by Instagram and is still part of the platform.

Meta has not sent notifications regarding political content restrictions by default to Instagram and Threads users. However, this opt-out setting has been rolled out widely, even in Indonesia.