How to Prevent Instagram From Automatically Hiding Political Content
Instagram and Threads now hide political content by default, making it difficult to keep up with current events, important updates about government policies, voting rights, protests, and more. If you are the type of person who prefers not to view political content on social media, you can stop reading right here. However, if you want to view posts on issues such as healthcare, your government’s stance on global conflicts, or bills your local politicians support, you should look at your Instagram settings. (Note: Instagram says it will limit political content recommendations from accounts you don’t follow.)
How to prevent Instagram from removing political content
The bigger problem is that algorithms created by corporations control what you see on social media. However, you can take back your power (mostly). On Instagram, this could mean prohibiting the service from restricting political content. To do this, open the Instagram app on your phone and tap the Profile icon in the bottom right corner. Now click on the button with three lines in the top right corner and go to Content Settings . On this page you should select “Political Content” and on the next page select “Do not restrict” . This setting affects both Instagram and Threads (it’s not available in the Threads app).
The wording on this settings page is unclear regarding what Instagram defines as “political content.” The company states that political content is “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social issues,” which is a vague definition at best. He adds that you won’t see political posts from public accounts on the Explore page, Instagram Reels, or suggested posts that appear in your feed.
How will this change affect you?
Instagram has been talking about distancing itself from news and political content for some time now, and this change strengthens its stance on the issue. The company says that if you follow political accounts on the service, you’ll be able to see their content in your feed, but it wo n’t recommend those posts unless you follow those accounts.
This will affect some accounts much more than others. If someone has provided valuable information from a conflict zone, it may be hidden from many people who would benefit from seeing it. Over time, algorithms can easily hamper disaster relief efforts in situations where there are requests for funding for humanitarian aid or rescue operations.
It’s also unclear at this point whether the move will reduce the spread of politically motivated misinformation such as propaganda, anti-vaccination messaging or other forms of unscientific rage bait.