Mark Zuckerberg smiles while speaking at the Meta Connect conference Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
According to the Washington Post, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and its Instagram, Facebook, and Threads platforms are suppressing content related to the 2024 election, making it harder for users to discuss politics and voting. One influencer suffered from an astonishing 63 percent drop in audience just by mentioning the word “vote” on a post.
In an exclusive investigation, Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler has uncovered how Meta’s social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, are actively suppressing content related to the upcoming 2024 election. This suppression is not only affecting partisan political posts but also seemingly nonpartisan content that simply mentions words like “vote.”
Fowler’s investigation focused on the Instagram account of creator Mrs. Frazzled, whose real name is Arielle Fodor. By analyzing her account data, Fowler found that whenever Fodor mentioned anything related to politics over the last six months, her audience size declined by about 40 percent compared to her nonpolitical posts. Even more striking, when she used the word “vote” in a caption across 11 posts, her average audience was 63 percent smaller. Fodor’s experience is not an isolated case; Fowler found several other Instagram creators who noticed a similar pattern.
This trend is not unique to individual accounts. A wider study by the advocacy group Accountable Tech quantified the audience drop for five prominent leftist Instagram accounts, including the Human Rights Campaign and Feminist, which post almost entirely about politics. Over 10 weeks this spring, their average audiences fell by a staggering 65 percent. The study also found that conservative accounts experienced a similar drop in engagement when discussing political topics.
