Meta changes could have a chilling effect on democracy - The Front Page

There are fears a move by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to move away from content that could lead to misinformation or disinformation could end up censoring much political discourse. Photo / Viacheslav Lopatin

A new social media policy is being described as having a chilling effect on politics and by extension the health of democracy.

Meta, the global behemoth that owns Facebook and Instagram, is putting a stranglehold on recommendations in user feeds that contain political content.

The move, signalled in February, applies to Instagram and Threads, and will eventually extend to Facebook.

NZ Herald senior writer Derek Cheng told The Front Page it means users will have to opt in to see those recommendations.

“It’s a dark area because it could mean anything from a politician, anything about governments or laws, social topics that affect a group of people or society at large,” Cheng said.

“The direction of Meta has been away from politics because the way the algorithms are structured and the echo chambers that it potentially creates means that political content is more likely to throw up something that could be misinformation or disinformation.

“They’ve also been in the firing line a lot about the harmful unintended consequences of these kinds of echo chambers.”

While speaking to Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick about the issue, Cheng says it became clear there isn’t a lot of clarity around what “political content” actually entails.

“She said one of the real problems is ‘what is political content?’ Like, is it a rainbow group or someone talking about Gaza? It could encompass any manner of things, or all things entirely,” he said.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about what’s happening, why, and how it changes the game for politicians.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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