Instagram to make changes after backlash from Kardashians, here's what to expect

Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner recently joined social media users in criticising Instagram for becoming too similar to rival app TikTok.

How did Kim and Kylie get involved?

It all started with an Instagram post by @illumitati that said 'make Instagram Instagram again. (stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends.)' She captioned it 'I’m starting a movement… share this to your stories and SIGN MY PETITION.'

Her post quickly went viral. It currently has a massive 2.2 million likes and 42.5k comments. Among the many social media users sharing her post was none other than Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner. This obviously caught the attention of Instagram.

According to High Snobiety, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri initiallyposted a video on Twitter on 26 July recognising that photos are the foundation of the app and that it will continue to support them. He also acknowledged the growing concerns about the increasing number of videos in people’s feeds. Mosseri promised 'we’re going to continue to support photos. It’s part of our heritage.' He added, as reported by Fortune:

That said, I need to be honest. I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time. We see this even if we change nothing.

What are the changes being rolled back?

However, this response was seemingly not enough. Social media users are particularly disgruntled about the amount of 'recommended' posts in their feed from accounts that they do not follow. Instagram has now announced that it will roll back some of its recent changes in response to the backlash. Mosseri said in an interview with tech newsletter Platformer on 28 July:

I’m glad we took a risk - if we’re not failing every once in a while, we’re not thinking big enough or bold enough. But we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup. [When] we’ve learned a lot, then we come back with some sort of new idea or iteration. So we’re going to work through that.

Over the next couple of weeks, Instagram will work on its algorithm to reduce the amount of recommended posts and will remove the full-screen display. However, Mosseri also highlighted that the changes announced today are not permanent.

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