Instagram has announced new steps to cut down on misinformation campaigns on its platform ahead of the US Presidential elections next week. As part of the plan, the company says it will temporarily remove the ‘Recent’ tab from hashtag pages.
Starting today, for people in the U.S. we will temporarily remove the “Recent” tab from hashtag pages. We’re doing this to reduce the real-time spread of potentially harmful content that could pop up around the election.
Do note that the change would only be applicable for people in the US, so users in the rest of the world will continue to see the Recent tab when searching for a hashtag. Folks in the US, though, will likely only see the ‘top’ posts for any particular hashtag with no option to browse for recent posts, thereby eliminating potential exposure to targeted disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories.
