If you haven’t seen a lot of political content on Instagram lately, there’s a reason why. Since March, Instagram and Threads have instituted a new default setting that limits the political content you see from people you don’t follow.
Hundreds of creators, brought together by GLAAD and Accountable Tech, signed an open letter demanding that Instagram make limiting political content an optional feature rather than enabled by default.
“While many of us provide authoritative, fact-based content on Instagram that helps people understand current events, civic engagement, and voter turnout, Instagram limits our ability to reach people online to help foster a more inclusive and participatory democracy and society during a critical shift. an important point for our country,” the letter reads.
Signatories to the letter include comedian Alok Vaid-Menon (1.3 million followers), Glee actor Kevin McHale (1.1 million), news account So Informed (3.1 million), activist Carlos Eduardo Espina (664,000), Under The Desk News (397,000) and other meme accounts, political organizers and artists.
Instagram’s definition of political content leaves a lot of room for interpretation, which further fuels these creators’ concerns. It describes political content as anything that is “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social topics.”
The letter points out that this “endangers the reach of marginalized people speaking about their own lived experiences on Meta’s platforms” and limits conversation on topics such as climate change, gun control and reproductive rights.
For political creatives, these limitations may also impact their livelihoods, since it will be more difficult to reach new audiences. While Instagram itself isn’t particularly lucrative (there’s no regular revenue sharing with creators), building an audience on the platform can lead to other financial opportunities, like brand sponsorships. .
As election season approaches in the United States, Instagram’s decision to distance itself from politics might seem like damage control – Meta has a less than stellar profile. historical regarding its role in the elections. But Meta could create even more problems by locking its users into political echo chambers, where they are never exposed to any information from people outside their existing circles.
“Removing policy recommendations as the default setting, and therefore preventing people from seeing suggested policy content, poses a serious threat to political engagement, education, and activism,” the letter states.
techcrunch
