Following a major backlash from users, Instagram is going back on the slew of changes to the platform that have been happening over the last couple of months. This was, of course, prompted by major influencers. Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner expressed their dissatisfaction publicly. But many users have taken to Twitter to voice their concerns as well as their anger, especially about how the new algorithm resulted in people’s feeds being overtaken with videos of people they don’t follow.
The tension in some of Instagram’s more than 1 billion users reached a boiling point when Jenner, the third-most-popular user with 361 million followers, and Kim K, the seventh-most popular with 326 million followers, shared a meme calling for the app to become “Instagram Again.” The meme’s slogan is “Make Instagram Instagram Again,” in which they asked the app to stop trying to be TikTok.
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Following last week’s onslaught of user rage over a number of modifications, the photo and video sharing app was accused of copying TikTok at the expense of its most devoted users. Instagram announced earlier last week that it was reverting a number of the modifications, including a test version of the app that displayed posts in full-screen.
Because of this backlash, Adam Mosseri posted a video on Instagram where he said the company was taking risks and trying new things—also stating that more and more of Instagram will be focused on video content moving forward. But after seeing the Kardashians’ posts, he did later on agree that Instagram had gone too far. People who just use the app to stay connected with their friends and family did not necessarily want to be flooded with unwanted videos.
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It seems that Instagram will be listening to the feedback of its longtime users, and at the very least will be reducing the amount of recommended posts that are being pushed onto users without really being asked. The intent behind it was to allow for more discovery the same way that you discover new creators daily on TikTok. But these two apps serve very different functions, and Instagram should maybe stay in its own lane.
It may be the case that Instagram will just keep putting more focus on Reels, which seem to be doing significantly well, but users are hoping for the other major changes to remain at bay.
Speaking of Reels, they can now be paywalled and turned into Ads.
Photos via Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner
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