Instagram has grown from a place where friends and family share photos to a destination for brands, memes and entertainment. It’s also a growing news source – especially for younger Americans. And it’s become a way for elected officials and activists to engage with the public.
But its connection with politics is evolving. Earlier this year, the company announced it would limit the political content it suggests to its users.
This chapter explores if and how Americans engage with political content on Instagram and what users think of its impact on politics. Here are some of the key findings:
- Instagram is primarily a platform for entertainment and connecting – not politics. Just 26% of Instagram users say a reason they use the site is to keep up with politics and political issues. By comparison, about eight-in-ten users or more say they use the site because it’s entertaining (86%) or because they want to keep up with friends and family (83%).
- Politics is not particularly prevalent on the site. About a third of users (36%) say at least some of what they see there is about politics or political issues. Another 38% see only a little and 26% see none at all.
- Just over half of Instagram users (56%) think it has no impact on American democracy. Still, more believe it is mostly good (26%) than mostly bad (16%) for democracy.
- When it comes to the political content encountered on Instagram, users are more likely to see liberal-leaning posts. About one-quarter of users report seeing mostly liberal political content, while only 7% report seeing mostly conservative content. Still, about four-in-ten do not perceive any ideological lean in the political content they encounter on Instagram (21%) or are unsure what they think (22%).
Why and how people use Instagram
Our survey explored the “why” and “what” behind how people use the platform.
Reasons for using Instagram
From connection to having fun, there’s a wide range of reasons people might use Instagram. We asked about seven reasons in the survey.
Most Instagram users are there because it’s entertaining. Nearly nine-in-ten say that’s a reason they use it, including 56% who say it’s a major reason.
Connection is key. Most users also say keeping up with friends and family is a major (54%) or minor (29%) reason they use Instagram. And about three-quarters say a reason they’re on it is to connect with people who share their interests.
Relatively few say a reason they’re on it is to stay up to date with politics. About a quarter of Instagram users say keeping up with politics or political issues is a reason for using it.
Among the other reasons people use Instagram: Keeping up with sports or pop culture (52%), looking at product reviews and recommendations (44%) and getting news (33%).
Related: News as a reason people use Instagram
By party
Some of these reasons differ across political parties. For example, Democratic users are slightly more likely than Republican users to say keeping up with politics is a reason they use Instagram (29% vs. 24%). (Throughout this report, both groups include independents who lean toward each party.)
Seeing politics on Instagram
About a third of Instagram users say at least some of what they see there is about politics or political issues – including a mere 3% who say it’s all or most of what they see.
Another 38% say they see a little political content on the platform, and 26% say they see none at all.
By party
Similar shares of Republican (37%) and Democratic (35%) users say at least some of what they see on the platform is about politics.
Posting about politics on Instagram
Posting political content on Instagram is even less common for users than seeing it.
Just 8% of Instagram users say they post or share at least some content about politics or political issues there.
Another 10% say they post a little political content there. But most Instagram users either say they don’t share anything about politics (41%) or don’t post on the platform at all (40%).
By party
Partisanship doesn’t play much of a role in who shares at least some political content: 7% of Republican users and 9% of Democratic users say they do this.
Why do people post about politics on Instagram?
We followed up with the 19% of Instagram users who say they post at least a little about politics to understand why they might do so. We asked them about four potential reasons and found that many feel they should post about politics – but fewer post about politics because they feel it belongs there.
Among Instagram users who post about politics:
- 70% say a reason is that they feel it’s something they should do, including 30% who say this is a major reason.
- Similarly, about two-thirds each cite their views being welcome there (66%) or thinking they can make a difference there (64%) as reasons.
- A smaller share of those who post about politics (45%) say it’s because politics belongs on Instagram.
Why don’t people post about politics on Instagram?
We also asked the 41% of Instagram users who share things – but not anything political – on the site about four different reasons they might not do so. Many of them just don’t think politics belongs there.
Among Instagram users who post on the site, but never about politics:
- 60% say a reason they don’t post is that politics doesn’t belong on Instagram. This includes 38% who say it’s a major reason.
- Smaller shares say it’s because it won’t make a difference (48%), they don’t care about politics (45%) or they want to avoid criticism or harassment (44%).
By party
Republican users are more likely than Democratic users to say a major reason they don’t post about politics on Instagram is because they think it doesn’t belong there (44% vs. 36%).
On the other reasons we asked about, though, there are no differences by party. For example, about a quarter each of Republicans and Democrats who don’t post political content on Instagram say avoiding criticism or harassment is a major reason.
How Instagram users see its climate and impact
While entertainment and relationships are the driving forces behind why people use Instagram, its connection to its parent company, Meta (which also owns Facebook), makes it a key player in broader discussions around political discourse on social media.
In addition to understanding how often people see or post content related to politics, we wanted to understand whether people who use Instagram think it impacts democracy. We also explored what users think about freedom of expression and harassment on the platform, and which way they think the political content they see leans.
Instagram and American democracy
When asked about Instagram’s impact on American democracy, by far, the largest share of users – 56% – think it doesn’t have an effect.
Much smaller shares believe it is mostly good (26%) or mostly bad (16%) for democracy.
By party
Views about Instagram’s impact on democracy vary little by party.
About one-in-five Republican users think the site is mostly bad for American democracy, while 15% of Democratic users say the same. And about a quarter in both parties think Instagram is good for democracy.
Identical shares of users in both parties (56% each) think Instagram has no impact on democracy in this country.
Free expression on Instagram
Most Instagram users think people feel free to openly share their political beliefs on Instagram.
Three-quarters say people feel free to openly express their political views on the site. Fewer (23%) believe that people don’t feel free to do this.
By party
A majority of Democratic and Republican users think people feel free to share about politics on Instagram, but larger shares of Democrats than Republicans say this (82% vs. 69%).
Republican users, on the other hand, are more likely than their Democratic peers to say people don’t feel free to express their political thoughts on the platform (29% vs. 17%).
Political content users see on Instagram
In addition to understanding if people think users can freely express themselves on Instagram, we also asked if the politics they see on the site leans more conservative or liberal.
Instagram users have somewhat mixed views, with no answer receiving majority support. Still, users are more likely to say what they see about politics and political issues on Instagram leans mostly liberal rather than mostly conservative (23% vs. 7%).
There are also segments of users who either don’t think the politics they see has an ideological slant (21%) or are unsure if it does (22%).
By party
Democrats and Republicans are about equally likely to say the political content they see on Instagram leans liberal.
But Republican users are somewhat more likely than Democratic users to say what they see leans conservative (10% vs. 4%). On the other hand, Democratic users are more likely than their GOP peers to say there isn’t an ideological slant to what they come across on the site (24% vs. 18%).
Harassment on Instagram
In recent years, Instagram has taken steps to curb hate speech and online abuse on the site.
Even so, roughly seven-in-ten Instagram users say people getting harassed on the site is a problem, including 22% who consider it to be a major issue.
By party
Many Democrats and Republicans who use Instagram think harassment is a problem on the platform.
But Democrats are 14 percentage points more likely than Republicans to consider it to be a problem, with larger shares of Democrats (27%) than Republicans (17%) calling it a major one.
At the same time, larger shares of Republican than Democratic users don’t think harassment is a problem on Instagram (34% vs. 20%).
