Threads isn't for news and politics, says Instagram's boss

[highplainsdem]

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/7/23787334/instagram-threads-news-politics-adam-mosseri-meta-facebook

Instagram’s new Threads app is “not going to do anything to encourage” politics and “hard news,” Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said in a Threads conversation with The Verge’s Alex Heath.

The additional scrutiny, negativity, and integrity risks that come with politics and hard news aren’t worth the “incremental engagement or revenue,” Mosseri wrote. “There are more than enough amazing communities — sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment, etc. — to make a vibrant platform without needing to get into politics or hard news.” (Mosseri’s strong point of view here is likely informed by his time running Facebook’s News Feed.)

In recent years, Meta has distanced itself from news and politics, including reducing the amount of political content that users see on Facebook. It even dropped “News” from the name of the Facebook Feed last year. The company also responded to a new Canadian law that would require it to pay for local news by saying it will yank news from Facebook and Instagram in the country.

The Instagram boss later clarified his initial response, stating that while Threads won’t “discourage or down-rank news or politics,” it won’t “court” them as Facebook has in the past. “If we are honest, we were too quick to promise too much to the industry on Facebook in the early 2010s, and it would be a mistake to repeat that,” Mosseri said.

-snip-

More at the link.


That exchange on Threads about news and politics:

https://www.threads.net/t/CuZ3LjhNl0m/

alexheath
1d
Will be interesting to see how the news industry does/doesn’t embrace Threads.

Meta as a company has spent the past few years actively distancing itself from news and literally downranking it in FB and IG. Killed the news tab, etc. Now threatening to pull all news in countries proposing laws that would require payments to publishers to host their links.

But if this app is going to be a real Twitter competitor, it’s going to need the news industry to embrace it. Is Meta ready for that?



324 replies
·

mosseri
10h
The goal isn't to replace Twitter. The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter.

Politics and hard news are inevitably going to show up on Threads - they have on Instagram as well to some extent - but we're not going to do anything to encourage those verticals.

1,697 replies
·

[Tetrachloride]

1. Plausible deniability

[ismnotwasm]

2. Too late

Lol

[Renew Deal]

3. This is good news for the internet and BlueSky.

Threads is too limited in terms of platforms and too connected to Instagram.