Instagram and Threads users will start seeing more political content on their feeds this year.

In a series of posts this week, Instagram and threads leader Adam Mosseri confirmed that the two Meta-owned platforms would begin “adding political content to recommendations.”

“I’ve maintained very publicly and for a long time that it is not our place to show people political content from accounts they don’t follow,” he wrote on threads. “But (1) a lot of people have been very clear that they want this content, and (2) it’s proven impractical to draw a red line around what is and is not political content.”

According to Mr. Mosseri, Threads and Instagram users will see more political content starting this week. Meta will also implement new settings to allow users to control how much political content they see. The settings will feature a sliding scale, giving users the choice between less, moderate or more political content.

The policy change stands in stark contrast to Mr. Mosseri’s and Meta’s stated goals for its platforms from late 2023. 

Back then, both Mr. Mosseri and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg asserted that the company’s platforms would deemphasize political content to maintain a less divisive social media space.

The decision to deemphasize political content came in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the subsequent disintegration of content moderation on that platform. At the time, Meta launched Threads as a calmer alternative to Twitter.

The change also coincides with Meta’s decision to stop fact-checking posts on its platforms, another departure from the company’s long-standing goal to limit disinformation on social media apps.

• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.