The social network Instagram (an organization whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation) accidentally changed user settings to automatically restrict political content, even if these users disabled this option, The Hill newspaper reported on June 26.
According to journalists, the company itself confirmed this.
The scandal began when several Instagram users spoke out after noticing their settings had been changed to limit political content ahead of Thursday’s first debate of 2024 between President Biden and former President Trump.
Although this option was developed by the parent company Meta (an organization whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation) in February, users suspected that the coincidence of the use of this option with the preparations for debates between presidential candidates was not a coincidence. .
The Accountable support team has asked Meta to provide users and creators with detailed information about the bug and how long the setting has been enabled without users’ knowledge. Nicole Gill, CEO and co-founder of Accountable Tech, highlighted the potential impact of the error depending on the timing of the presidential debate.
“In the middle of an election year and the day before the first presidential debate, Meta just showed us all that with the flip of a switch, the company can change algorithms and settings without the knowledge of users and creators, which has serious implications for the reach of content related to political education, activism and mobilization,” Gill said.
The US presidential debate will take place on June 27 in Atlanta. The debate will be moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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