Meta Steps Back From Politics, Affecting 2024 Election
By Movieguide® Contributor
To avoid controversy, Meta has stepped back from politics, a move that has already had major implications for the upcoming presidential election.
Meta inserted itself into the 2016 and 2020 presidential races, portraying itself as a forum for democracy. However, with the higher rates of polarization across the country, Meta now wants out of politics and is taking strong measures to make its platforms less lucrative for the candidates.
Following the 2020 election, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg said the company plans to “turn down the temperature” on political speech.
“Politics has kind of had a way of creeping into everything,” Zuckerburg said in early 2021. “The feedback that we see from our community is that people don’t want that in their experience.”
Earlier this year, Adam Moseri announced, “Over the next few weeks we will be improving how we avoid recommending content about politics on recommendation surfaces – like Explore, Reels, and Suggested Users – across both Instagram and Threads. If you want political recommendations, you will have a control to opt into getting them.”
The company, however, will continue to allow political content to educate voters while limiting the reach of political ads and endorsements.
“While only a small percentage of content on our platforms is political, we remain committed to helping people find reliable information about voting and elections, and to provide campaigns of all sizes the tools they need to reach their audiences,” Meta said.
The change in the company’s intentions has already made a significant difference as campaigns are finding their campaign dollars don’t go as far on Facebook as they used to.
“The targeting has become more inefficient. It’s harder to get direct responses, meaning donations,” said Tatenda Musapatike, a former Facebook employee and CEO of Voter Formation Project. “You need to invest more to get more.”
This change has caused a significant drop in spending, leading the advertising on Meta to resemble that of midterm elections rather than a presidential race. On any given day in 2024, Meta has made roughly a third of the money it made on political ads in 2020.
While less political content seems like a win for consumers, it may only lead to more polarization across the country as campaigns turn to ads that appear on more left- or right-leaning forums that have less crossover with the other side.
It also means that the people who receive their news from social media are less likely to be politically informed heading into the election, as they will be less educated about those running for office than they have been in the past.
Movieguide® previously reported on Meta’s role in politics:
Earlier this month, YouTube released a statement that they would reinstate Donald Trump’s YouTube channel, allowing him to run ads and campaign on the video platform.
“Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content,” YouTube said. “We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for votes to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.”
Trump officially announced his bid for the 2024 presidency in November of last year.
“This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube,” the statement clarified, meaning the company reserves the right to restrict his channel again, if future actions deem it necessary.
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