Meta wants Threads to keep a light tone, but some publishers say the audience is ready for news 

Meta’s Twitter competitor platform Threads launched less than three weeks ago under the guise that the social media site would be focused on fun and entertainment versus hard news and politics. 

But for news publishers who followed the masses of users who joined the platform shortly after it launched, this guidance from Meta was seen more as a suggestion than a mandate. Based on early engagement signals, some news publishers, like the Washington Post, are seeing that news and political content is definitely of interest to their followers. Meanwhile, others, like Texas Monthly, CBS News and Vice News, are testing their news content on the platform to see if there’s an appetite for it, particularly heading into an election year.

“Meta has made it clear that journalism and hard news and politics is not a priority for them on any of their platforms at this point. It has been in the past on places like Facebook. It never really was for them on Instagram, but we’ve still had success there. And so, we’re not going to change our content strategy” when it comes to posting on this new social media platform, said Travis Lyles, deputy director of social and off-platform curation at the Post.

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