Last October, Facebook announced its plans to start labeling state-controlled media and started rolling out the feature in June. As spotted by journalist Casey Michel, the company is reportedly bringing similar changes to Instagram.
The change comes just weeks ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. As you can see in the image below, Instagram has added a ‘Russia state-controlled media’ label on the profile page for a media company named Redfish.
Instagram has begun rolling out new “state-controlled media” labels—here are the ones for Kremlin outlets aimed at younger Americans: pic.twitter.com/vyUySA1zbW
— Casey Michel 🇰🇿 (@cjcmichel) October 5, 2020
Instagram doesn’t limit its political labels to the profile page. You will also see this label below the account’s name when you’re viewing posts published by such accounts. This way, viewers will stay informed about the content they’re watching or reading on the platform.
Here’s what the new “Russia state-controlled media” label on Instagram looks like when you’re scrolling: pic.twitter.com/VXrfhBmmui
— Casey Michel 🇰🇿 (@cjcmichel) October 5, 2020
On a support page, Instagram has elaborated on how the company identifies these media outlets. State-controlled media are media outlets that “Instagram believes may be partially or wholly under the editorial control of their government.”
The identification process is based on the company’s own research and assessment against a set of criteria developed for this purpose. This includes reviewing available information about ownership, governance, sources of funding, and following certain processes to ensure the editorial independence of the organization.
“We hold these accounts to a higher standard of transparency because we believe they combine the influence of a media organization with the backing of a state,” says the company.
In the currently labeled set of pages, some of them have updated their profile bios to disagree with the label. In case any page is mislabeled, Instagram offers an option to the page owner to submit an appeal. Instagram may revoke the label if it finds the appeal convincing.
Featured Image Courtesy: Casey Michel / Twitter
