Instagram has announced that it “accidentally” changed users’ default settings to limit political content ahead of Thursday’s presidential debate.
The change applies to all users, even if you have previously turned the settings off.
CNN will be hosting the first presidential debate this Thursday, June 27, in Atlanta, Georgia. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate.
The Hill reports:
Several Instagram users spoke out after noticing their settings had been changed to limit political content, an option created by parent company Meta in February, ahead of Thursday’s first 2024 debate between President Biden and former President Trump.
In a response to a post from Democratic strategist Keith Edwards on Threads, another Meta app, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the resetting of users’ limits on political content was “an error and should not have happened,” and the company is working to get it fixed.
On February 9, Meta announced that Instagram and Threads would soon begin limiting political content. The announcement did not say it would change all users’ settings to a limited politics default.
In March, Instagram changed algorithm settings to limit political content by default. This only applied to content from users that you do not follow on the platform.
If you still wish to see political content, you must go into your settings and manually change the setting by clicking on “content preferences” and then “political content” and selecting “don’t limit.”
The second debate will be hosted by ABC News in September. The network has not yet announced moderators for that debate.
