Meta’s Threads users can now avoid automatic sharing of their posts with other Meta apps like Instagram and Facebook. The new opt-out feature, spotted by software engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, allows users to prevent their posts from being shared without their consent. Users can turn off cross-platform content sharing by accessing their profile, selecting Privacy > Suggesting posts on other apps, and toggling off Instagram and Facebook individually. However, this change only affects the user’s own posts, not the visibility of other users’ Threads posts on Instagram and Facebook, regardless of privacy settings.
Many Threads users were upset about their content being automatically shared across different platforms, especially because they use these apps to connect with different groups of people. Some individuals described the automatic sharing as clickbait, designed to provoke comments by stripping bold statements of context. Meta responded to feedback from users by acknowledging the issue and promising to address it.
Meta has a history of leveraging its existing social apps to promote its new ones. It used Instagram to propel Threads to 150 million downloads, though growth has slowed since then. CEO Mark Zuckerberg remains optimistic about the future of Threads, stating a goal of reaching one billion users.
