Culture

Is Anyone Else Getting Weird Threads Recommendations?

by Ky Stewart  10 January 2024

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Has anyone checked on how Threads is doing recently? Because it seems like Meta is baiting people with strange, conservative rage posts. 

When Elon Musk turned X into the hellscape that it is, Threads gave us hope that it would provide a reprieve from all the worst parts of Twitter. For the first week it truly seemed like Meta’s alternative was a safe space from Twitter bots and far right conservative accounts. That’s before everyone got bored and went back to X. 

I admit that I was hooked on Threads for about a week until I started to crave the unhinged chaos that is Twitter. Since then, I haven’t opened the app once. I would’ve forgotten it existed if it wasn’t for the annoying notifications letting me know that people I follow on Instagram are joining Threads. Yes, I could turn off my notifications from the app but that’s too much effort. Even if I did turn notifications off, Instagram wouldn’t let me live in peace, with their constant in-app recommendations of Threads posts.

At first, I’d scroll right past the recommendations without paying much attention. But then I noticed that the Threads posts popping up on my Instagram feed became increasingly conservative, rage-bait-type posts. None of the accounts recommended were from the ones I follow on Instagram or Threads and they didn’t reflect the content on my feed. 

Posts from pro-Israel and conservative accounts seemed to dominate my Threads recommendations. One post from self-proclaimed “Israeli worship leader” Emanuel Roro said “Israelis are indigenous people”. His Threads page is flooded with the same type of statements above a photo of the Israel flag. Another post recommendation came from blogger Melissa Chapman, who posted a video with the caption “looks like the food is a plenty in gaza”. (It’s believed that starvation is being used as a weapon in Gaza.) 

It made me wonder why pro-Israel Threads posts were being served to me when I don’t follow them or interact with that type of content normally. What interested me the most was that Instagram has been accused of regularly deplatforming, shadow-banning, and removing pro-Palestine content. I have seen a decrease in Palestinian content on my Instagram but pro-Israel accounts are being promoted to me as Threads ads. 

Another frequent type of content that was being recommended to me was from conservative accounts like The Real Grant May with posts like “It’s okay to be white”, “Porn is making people gay”, or “The most dangerous place for a black American to be is in their mother’s womb”. Again, this type of content isn’t reflective of my actual feed so it begs the question: why is it being served to me? 

threads

Turns out I’m not alone in noticing that something very weird is happening with Threads. 

This user was being served the same post from the same account that I was seeing:

Are they all bots? Have hardcore conservatives found another home on Threads? Once we turned our backs on it, did it become a safe haven for the far right? Food for thought. 

Funnily enough, after I started using Threads again, my Instagram recommendations have gone back to the content I’m actually engaging in.

threads

It makes me wonder if Instagram was using rage bait or conservative posts on dicey situations as a way to lure people into the app. If so, I guess it’s not too much different from Twitter (or X) after all.  

Ky is a proud Kamilaroi and Dharug person and writer at Junkee. Follow them on Instagram or on X.

Image credit: Junkee / Ky Stewart / Talecia Vescio