Meta fixes a bug that seemed to reset users’ political content settings on Instagram and threads

Meta fixed a bug that caused people to think the corporate had adjusted their selections within the political content tool without their consent. The issue affected users on each Instagram and Threads, seemingly resetting users’ content settings to default, which limits the quantity of political content users see from people they do not follow.

On Wednesday, Meta confirmed it was investigating the difficulty and working to resolve it.

Later Wednesday night, Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone announced in a post within the thread that the difficulty has been resolved. He also shared additional information in regards to the nature of the error, saying that Meta didn’t change political content settings on the backend, but only appeared to achieve this. This made it appear as if users’ chosen settings had been reset, “even though no changes were actually made,” Stone wrote on Threads.

The company didn’t provide more information on how the error occurred, but Stone encouraged users to check whether their settings now reflect their preferences.

You can do that in your Instagram settings, where you scroll down to “Content Preferences,” then select “Political Content.” This is where you possibly can select whether or not you wish to limit political content shared by people you follow.

This setting affects suggestions that appear in Explore, Reels, Channel Recommendations, and Suggested Users, as explained on the page, and also applies to threads.

The recent control was first announced earlier this 12 months. It serves as a way to distance Meta from blame for the impact its apps have on people – something Meta didn’t want to be accused of within the run-up to the US election.

The move isn’t surprising given criticism of the tech giant from either side of the US political spectrum, accused by Republicans of censoring free speech and by Democrats of being too lenient on disinformation and disinformation. Just weeks after the launch of X competitor Threads, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with questions on the app’s content moderation policies.

Later, Meta announced that it will not “actively” recommend political content, which sparked a backlash from creators.

The fact that Meta even has settings for political content shows the ability of algorithm-driven social media apps, where content is displayed based on multiple aspects relatively than simply being a reverse-chronological feed of individuals users have chosen to follow. Other startups, equivalent to Bluesky and other federated networks, are recent models for moderating or blocking content on social media platforms. For example, Bluesky allows users to create their very own channels and subscribe to moderation services. However, the app’s 5 million-plus user base is not as large as Threads’ 170 million monthly energetic users or Instagram’s 2 billion-plus monthly users.

Fortunately for those using Instagram and threads, the bug was fixed ahead of Trump and Biden’s first political debate of 2024, which took place on Thursday evening.