If you’re active in Meta’s Threads, then you’ve probably come across some amount of engagement bait in your “for you” feed. Now Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has acknowledged the problem, saying the company is “trying to get it under control” after such posts.
“We’ve seen an increase in engagement bait on Threads, and we’re trying to get it under control,” Mosseri said a post About Threads. He did not say what steps the company was taking, but said there would be “more” on the matter.
Mosseri’s comments are the first to acknowledge the problem, which has become an increasingly hot topic of discussion on the Meta executive Threads. Because the app defaults to the “for you” algorithmic feed, tab-bait-style posts that attract a lot of responses often go viral on the app, even if it’s the type of content that many users don’t want to see.
But solving the problem can be tricky because what people often call “engage bait” takes many forms in an app. There are blatantly spammy posts raising copypasta content that is widely shared on Facebook (especially egregious here ). There are accounts that post open-ended AskReddit-style questions. And then there are the rage-bait posts, like by Business Insider’s Katie Notopoulos.
These posts, which often touch on polarizing topics, are simply designed to elicit angry responses from other users who have a controversial opinion of someone they don’t know. For example, I’ve seen dozens of posts with hundreds of answers about whether or not young children are allowed on airplanes. In his experience, Notopoulos has garnered more than 1 million views and 5,000 responses to a single post. viral tweet and Reddit post – about not feeding kids who come over for play dates.
While Mosseri and the Meta Threads algorithm didn’t explain why it was so easy for this type of content to go viral, it appears to be because the app prioritizes responses when deciding what to present to users. “Not all comments or responses are good,” Mosseri said .
