Instagram updating its recommendation algorithms to promote small, original content creators

With the new changes, Instagram intends to provide all creators with equal chance of breaking through to new audiences, especially those who are creating original content.

Instagram is updating its recommendation algorithms to promote content from smaller, original creators on the platform, the Meta-owned video and photo-sharing platform said on April 30.

Instagram said that historically creators with large followings and aggregators of reposted content have received wider reach on its recommendations by how it ranks the content on the platform.

With the new changes, the company intends to provide all creators with an equal chance of breaking through to new audiences, especially those who are creating original content.

The move comes as Instagram doubles down on content recommendations to boost user engagement on the platform. Last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's earnings conference call that more than 50 percent of the content people see on Instagram is now recommended by its AI recommendation systems.

He also mentioned that Reels and video continue to drive engagement on Instagram, with Reels alone now making up 50 percent of the time users spend within the app.

Instagram said it is now working on a new way to rank recommendations that will initially show eligible content to a small audience that it thinks will enjoy it. As people engage with the content, the top-performing set of Reels will be shown to a slightly wider audience and then the best of these will be shown to an even wider group and so on. The company plans to roll out these changes in the coming months.

Prior to this, Reels were ranked primarily in surfaces offering content recommendations based on how an account's followers engaged with them. This meant that accounts with the largest followings often saw the widest reach, the company said.

Instagram has also unveiled new updates that will look to boost the presence of original content on its platform.

In the coming months, Instagram will remove aggregators - accounts that repeatedly post content from other Instagram users that they didn’t create or enhance in a significant manner - from surfaces where the company recommends content, including the Explore tab, Reels and the in-feed recommendations.

If Instagram finds two or more identical pieces of content on its platform, the platform will only recommend the original one (Image source: Instagram)

This measure will apply to accounts who repost content 10 or more times in a period of 30 days. Affected accounts can become eligible for recommendations again after 30 days of them posting unoriginal content.

"This will not impact a set of publishers we’ve identified who have licensing agreements and/or explicit permissions from content creators" Instagram said in a blogpost. It also added that this step will not change how the firm shows people content from aggregator accounts they follow.

Further, if Instagram finds two or more identical pieces of content on its platform, the firm will only recommend the original one, which will directly replace the reposted content in places where it currently recommends content to users. The original creator will be notified when the content replaces reposts, the company said.

Instagram however notes that it will not replace content that has been changed in a significant manner to become a meme, a parody compilation, narrated with a new voiceover or remixed to express a reaction.

"If you take someone’s photo or video and riff on it, maybe putting green screen video of yourself on top with your own commentary or making it into a meme with text, we consider that (mixed) original content" Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a post on Threads.

Instagram will also start adding a label on reposted content that will link to the original creator, making it visible to followers of the account reposting the content. As of now, the original creator or the account reposting content will have the option to remove the label by tapping the three dots menu on a piece of content.