Just in time for the debates, Meta fixes a bug affecting users’ political content settings on Instagram and Threads

Meta has resolved a bug that led users to believe their political content settings had been altered without their consent. The bug affected users on both Instagram and Threads, resetting their content settings to default, which reduces the visibility of political content from people they don’t follow.

Meta began investigating the issue on Wednesday and implemented a fix later that evening. Andy Stone, Meta’s Communications Director, clarified in a Threads post that the bug did not actually change the settings on the backend but only made it appear that way. Users’ selections seemed to have been reset, although no actual change had occurred. Stone encouraged users to verify their settings to ensure they match their preferences.

To check and adjust your political content settings on Instagram, go to Settings, scroll down to “Content Preferences,” and select “Political content.” Here, you can choose whether to limit political content from people you follow. This setting impacts the content suggestions you see in Explore, Reels, Feed Recommendations, and Suggested Users, and it also applies to Threads.

Meta’s political content setting highlights the influence of algorithmically-driven social apps, which show content based on various factors rather than just a reverse-chronological feed of followed accounts. Other platforms, like Bluesky and federated networks, are exploring new models for content moderation and blocking. Bluesky, for instance, allows users to create their own feeds and subscribe to different moderation services. However, Bluesky’s user base of over 5.9 million is still much smaller compared to Threads’ 170 million monthly active users and Instagram’s over 2 billion monthly users.