Oops, a Meta ‘error’ limited political content on Instagram and Threads
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge
After Democratic strategist Keith Edwards urged Threads users to check the Instagram setting limiting political content from people they don’t follow, many people noticed theirs had abruptly changed. Journalist Taylor Lorenz confirmed that her settings had changed as well and noted that they appeared to reset every time she force-closed the Instagram app, which we’ve also confirmed on our phones.
Meta says the behavior was unintentional. “This was an error and should not have happened,” Meta communications director Andy Stone posted on Threads. “We’re working on getting it fixed.”
Meta introduced the opt-out setting that limits recommendations of “political content” to Instagram and Threads in March. At the time, the company said it…
