It’s been nearly a year since Instagram and Threads defaulted to blocking recommendations of “political” content from accounts you don’t already follow, but now Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says, “…we’re going to be adding political content to recommendations” on both platforms.

That’s a sharp turn from his statements in 2023laying out the goal of a “less angry place for conversations” that wouldn’t do anything to encourage politics or hard news. However, under Meta’s new approach to moderation — and new rules about what users can say on its platforms— that goal is going out the window just as the Trump administration prepares to take over.

Until now, users have had to opt-in to seeing recommendations of content deemed political, but the change rolling out this week in the US and to the rest of the world next week will turn on the recommendations and a content control setting available with options for less, standard (the default setting), and more.

In a series of Threads posts, Mosseri reiterated, “I’ve maintained very publicly and for a long time that it not our place to show people political content from accounts they don’t follow,” and that “it’s proven impractical to draw a red line around what is and is not political content.”

In a video on Instagram, he said that the push for political content — particularly from users on Threads — is “by the way, very different from the feedback we were getting only a few years ago about people feeling that they were overly exposed to political content on our platforms.” Of course, according to the Wall Street Journal, that was before Mark Zuckerberg experienced the effects of filters cutting down the reach of his post about recovering from a torn ACL and before Meta’s new and friendlier-to-Trump policy chief took over.

  • veee
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    394 months ago

    It’s impressive how quick these giants are to pivot on their own morals and philosophies to appease their new masters.

    • @robalees@lemmy.world
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      44 months ago

      Based on this list, any instances you recommend? I did Lemmy.world because I had no clue what I was doing. Just deleted FB and IG accounts, so I’m ready for change!

      • recursive_recursion they/them
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        4 months ago

        Here’s a couple that I think are good so far:

        I’m recommending these based on:

        • threads blocked at minimum (fedipact being optimal)
        • good wholesome community activities and interactions
        • high number of trustworthy admins to provide you support and for content moderation (unless you like spam and zero-sum nonsense)
        • useful and cool local communities
        • my past exp with fellow moderators

        Some will be more or less useful or interesting to you so honestly feel free to choose whichever you think fits best for you🤗

        • @robalees@lemmy.world
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          24 months ago

          Thank you for the reply, I’ll definitely check some of these out. I am interested in fedipact if possible, but I’m gonna give lemm.ee a go for a while. Same question as the other comment, do you know of any way to export posts/comments from a Lemmy instance? Trying to decide if I delete this account or just leave it as is.

          • recursive_recursion they/them
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            24 months ago

            no worries🤗

            Same question as the other comment, do you know of any way to export posts/comments from a Lemmy instance? Trying to decide if I delete this account or just leave it as is.

            Unfortunately as far as I know this isn’t yet possible, someone please correct me if I’m wrong.


            Currently my suggestion is to create a 2-way-link via your profile:

            User profiles while on desktop browser

            User profiles while using Raccoon

            Currently the Voyager app doesn’t show profiles but your profile and links will show up on the Raccoon app
            Hope this somewhat helps!

      • @kipo@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Lemm.ee has been great to me. The instance owner and maintainer seems like a genuinely decent person. We refused to federate with threads but otherwise we federate with pretty much everyone and leave it up the user to decide what they want to be exposed to.

        • @robalees@lemmy.world
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          24 months ago

          Thank you for the reply, checking out Lemm.ee and seeing how it goes. Looks like there is no official way to do it, but do you know of any way to export posts/comments from a Lemmy instance? Trying to decide if I delete this account or just leave it as is.

  • PhillyCodeHound
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    184 months ago

    Holy shit. Zuck/Mosseri are bowing to the Orange Idiot so much. I want to puke.

  • @flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz
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    124 months ago

    They weren’t before? Instagram was running political ads since at least 2017. It went under the radar because it wasn’t in the US, and nobody cares about content not in English.

  • @normalexit@lemmy.world
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    94 months ago

    Requesting a dump of my FB account data now. Planning to archive my data on my home server and delete my account when i get my zip.

    • @kipo@lemm.ee
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      84 months ago

      There are millions of us who support your decision to leave. Every deleted account matters.

    • @wrekone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      So long as, in the absence of rules, everyone is treated the same. Major social media platforms swing hard right, meaning that leftist positions will be marginalized regardless of the rules or absence thereof.

  • @Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    -174 months ago

    I thought instagram was for college aged girls to post thirst pics, and then complain that they can’t find anybody who respects them for their intellect.