MANILA, Philippines – Social media was abuzz as users discovered Instagram was automatically limiting recommendations of political posts on its feeds. 

The move was announced by Meta, Instagram’s parent company, on February 9 through a blog post. The update applies to public places and features such as Explore, Reels, In-Feed Recommendations, and Suggested Users.

Political content includes posts that mentions governments, elections, and topics related to social issues. 

“We also don’t want to proactively recommend political content from accounts you don’t follow. So we’re extending our existing approach to how we treat political content – we won’t proactively recommend content about politics on recommendation surfaces across Instagram and Threads,” it said. 

Meta explained in a separate February 9 blog post that it uses artificial intelligence systems to personalize the content users see based on their choices. The company said it spent years refining its systems to “reduce the amount of political content” on its platforms. 

If you want to continue getting political content in your recommendations, especially from accounts you aren’t necessarily following, try these steps to toggle your settings.

Meta added that it will roll out a similar feature on Facebook “at a later date.” 

– With graphics by Andoy Edoria/Rappler.com