We’re well into CSU’s Year of Democracy and Civic Engagement, but something has happened that we didn’t expect: Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, is cutting back on showing political content on their platforms.

Meta has announced that they’re doing this because users want less news and politics in their feeds. But there’s also some background noise about Meta trying to cut down on accusations of spreading fake news and extremism.

At first glance, this may seem like a straightforward, and even welcome, adjustment to the algorithms, but with democracy at the forefront of our academic and social discourse this year, it raises important questions and considerations.

What does this mean for us?

While Meta has provided a broad definition of political content, encompassing areas such as laws, elections, and social issues, the lack of clarity on specific criteria leaves room for interpretation. There’s no indication whether this definition includes broad content like the topic of democracy or only specific content related to extremism. Meta’s also not telling how they plan to identify content to be hidden.

As social media content creators for CSU, we need to figure out how this affects our own strategy. Moving forward, let’s keep our ears to the ground, tweak our strategies, and keep pushing for democracy and civic engagement. Even with these changes, we can still use social media to make a positive impact.