Well, it appears that Meta has once again learned a lesson that, just because people like one of your products, doesn’t mean that they like all of your products.
A couple of weeks ago, something weird started happening on Threads. Well, not even on Threads — it was actually happening on Instagram and Facebook. Out of seemingly nowhere, Meta started showing posts from Threads on its other social media platforms — obviously to entice users on those other platforms to start using Threads.
The backlash to that move was quite swift. Users were incredibly unhappy that their posts were being shown across Meta’s other platforms — especially since the company was doing so without their express permission. I personally fell in that camp. If I didn’t purposefully share it on another platform, why are you (Meta) making that choice for me?
Thankfully, it appears that Meta has heard upset users and — while it is not stopping the strategy altogether — is going to put control in users’ hands. As spotted by Alessandro Paluzzi and shared by Matt Navarra on Threads, it appears that the company is adding a new “Suggesting Posts” section to the Settings area of the app. Under this area, users will be able to choose whether or not their Threads posts are shown to people on Instagram and Facebook.
As seen in the screenshot below, it appears that this is set at the account level rather than the post level so if you turn it off, none of your posts will be shown across either platform:
Post by @mattnavarraView on Threads
This feature appears to be in the development stage, so it’s currently unclear when it will be available to users. Meta could also, of course, change its mind and not even release the feature, but that seems unlikely since it’s already been discovered by someone outside of the company.
Hopefully, Threads will roll this out soon so we can all go back to being ourselves without the fear of our grandmother seeing our posts.
