Threads launches 'Trending Topics', including discussions on politics to compete with X

The Threads team is currently testing Trending Topics in real time for a restricted group of U.S. users after devising a way to curtail potentially polarizing political conversations within the app. 

Post by @zuck

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According to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, the Threads team is currently working out the issues, but shortly, the app will offer a version of Trending Topics called "Today's Topics" that will encourage users to participate in more discussions on a wide range of topics. 

According to Meta, AI will choose the "timely topics" listing depending on what users are interacting with on the app. According to Threads, there is going to be some tweaking to prevent issues that go against its Community Guidelines. However, the listing should ideally highlight important discussions and allow others to access it to participate in similar ones.

Which Threads requires in one way or another.

The ability to follow discussions surrounding any event as they happen was a major component of Twitter's appeal, and Meta hopes to adopt a different approach to real-time social in the app, making it a more positive experience than Twitter was (and X now is). This is especially useful for live TV show discussion and sports engagement.

In addition to making it difficult for Threads to compete with X for in-the-moment engagement, the inability to participate in fast-moving, as-it-happens commentary begs the question of what the purpose of the program is.

However, Meta doesn't want contentious political discourse to take over, which is why it also revealed late last week that it will soon make political content opt-in by default. This move will undoubtedly restrict conversation on some of the more contentious parts of the platform.

As a way to further curate a better user experience within the app, one would assume that Meta would also be keeping a close check on what appears in its Trending Topics column.

Therefore, it stands to reason that Meta will also be attempting to exercise strict control over what appears in its Trending Topics column as an additional method of ensuring users have a better overall experience with the app.

Although Meta makes the following observation, it doesn't expressly state that it will be tampering with its AI-recommended trends:

"Our team of content specialists will make sure that topics are not repetitive, nonsensical, or misleading, and that they do not violate our Community Guidelines or any other applicable integrity guidelines."

Thus, there will be some degree of 'customization' concerning the app's trending content.