‘Not all comments or replies are good’: Meta promises to address engagement bait in Threads

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has acknowledged a surge of engagement bait in the social media platform Threads, claiming that Meta is working to fix the problem.

Mosseri’s acknowledgment came amid complaints from users about the engagement bait problem.

“Threads engagement account uses image from content farm – doesn’t even bother to take the label off – and triggers angry comments, which Threads thinks means the post is valuable, so it shows it to more people, and… repeat,” user pkafka wrote about a clear engagement bait post.

Mosseri responded by saying that “Not all comments are replies are good,” before offering: “We’ve seen an increase in engagement-bait on Threads and we’re working to get it under control. More to come.”

 

 Post by @mosseriView on Threads

 

The issue stems from the way Threads’ algorithm prioritizes posts based on user replies, which has led to the virality of content designed purely to provoke interaction. Engagement bait often appears as spammy posts, open-ended questions, or polarizing “rage-bait” that stirs up controversial debate.

Yet the initial complaints may have only scratched the surface regarding issues within Threads, as users piled on Mosseri’s post to air their grievances.

“Y’all are SO bad at content moderation. You constantly take down perfectly innocent posts yet leave up outright racism, misogyny, and threats,” darby.lyons wrote.

“How about you deal with the piss poor moderation? Getting banned for a week for pointing out a book was German was insane,” stelpavlou posted, with photo receipts.

“Maybe sort out the moderation first. Allowing a transphobic or a homophobic post along with blatant racist posts as ‘not breaching standards’ but deleting a post that calls out that bigotry,” stevearnold245 suggested.

It remains to be seen what actions Meta is going to take to address these issues.

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