Instagram doesn't want you to watch the presidential debate

The social media platform is automatically limiting all users' access to political content, one day before the first presidential debate

Update: 9:26am: A Meta spokesman has stated “This was an error and should not have happened. We're working on getting it fixed.”

Just one day before the first general election presidential debate of 2024, social media giant Meta changed users’ settings to automatically limit the amount of political content they can see on Instagram.

Several months ago, Instagram made a widely-publicized change that required users to go to their settings and “opt-in” to seeing political content in their feeds from accounts they do not already follow. Many political creators criticized that move, and encouraged their followers to update their settings and opt-in.

Now, Instagram has gone a step further, changing all users’ settings to automatically restrict political content every time they exit the app. Here’s what it looks like in practice:

It’s unclear when the company pushed this update, but it appears to have happened in the past 48 hours and was first brought to my attention by a group of large political accounts Tuesday night.

For several years, Meta has tried to exit politics, deprioritizing news and political content on its platforms. This latest move, just one day before one of the biggest political moments of the year, is further evidence of the company’s disinterest in being a place for politics.