Instagram Boss: Threads Will Not Encourage Politics And Hard News

Adam Mosseri, Threads "will not do anything to encourage" politics (photo: thead @mosseri)

JAKARTA - Instagram boss Adam Mosseri revealed that a new Instagram app called Threads "will do nothing to push" politics and "hard news." This was revealed in a Threads conversation between Mosseri and Alex Heath of The Verge.

Mosseri stated that political engagement and hard news carry additional risks related to stricter examinations, negative impacts, and integrity. According to him, these risks are not comparable to the additional engagement or income that may result.

"There are many amazing communities, such as sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment, and so on, that can create platforms that live without the need to engage in politics or hard news," Mosseri said. Mosseri's strong view may be influenced by his experience in running Facebook's News Feed.

In recent years, Meta ( Instagram's parent company) has moved away from news and politics, including reducing the amount of political content users see on Facebook. In fact, the company removed the word "News" from last year's Facebook Feed name. Meta is also responding to a new law in Canada that will ask them to pay for local news by saying that it will remove news from Facebook and Instagram in the country.

The boss of Instagram then clarified his response, stating that although Threads would not "obstacle or downgrade news or political ratings," Threads would not "carry" them like Facebook had done in the past.

"If we are honest, we were too quick to promise too much to the industry on Facebook in the early 2010s, and it would be a mistake to repeat it," Mosseri said.

Although Threads is clearly inspired by Twitter, the platform that is experiencing upheaval under its new holdings, seems Mosseri has a bigger outlook. Following his boss, Mark Zuckerberg, about finding a "clear path to 1 billion users."

"The goal is not to replace Twitter. Our goal is to create a public space for communities on Instagram that previously did not really adopt Twitter, and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) who are interested in quieter conversation spaces, but not like all aspects of Twitter," Mosseri said.

Threads launched on Wednesday July 5 and proved to be very popular; there are already more than 70 million registrations. However, the current atmosphere is much different from what is usually found on Twitter: there are only algorithm-based passes available, and the bait is already filled with celebrities and brands.

However, it seems unavoidable that politics and news will enter Threads in certain ways, especially if politicians and journalists use this platform during the 2024 presidential election cycle.

Instagram is also developing a special pass for people who are followed and a chronological feed, which should make Threads a more useful place to find news. However, it sounds like Instagram isn't going to try to make Threads look like what it's ever been on Twitter, so don't expect to see something like Thread-Deck.