2023-10-24 14:09:59
par Jennifer Mertens
published on Tuesday October 24, 2023 at 4:09 p.m. •
3 min read
A new news feed is being developed on Instagram, announced Adam Mosseri, the boss of the social network. This will only display verified users and accounts. The beginning of the end for free users?
The essential : shortly following X decided to charge users for account certification, Meta did the same on Facebook and Instagram. And it seems that his inspiration doesn’t stop there. Instagram is preparing to welcome a news feed highlighting only paid users and accounts.
The objective : encourage users looking for recognition to take out a subscription.
Since the new news feed will only group posts from paid accounts. “We’re exploring this as a new tool for people and a way for businesses and creators to get discovered,” explained Adam Mosseri.
Instagram even more anxiety-provoking?
This new feature, which has not yet been launched, raises many questions regarding the future of the platform.
On the one hand, on the fate reserved for free users : will their accounts be “shadowbanned”, meaning that their visibility will be reduced to zero? It’s possible. We can imagine that the default news feed will be that of subscribed users and that that of free users will be less highlighted. Like what we can already see today with the “For you”, “Following” and “Favorites” threads. Although the preview shared by Mosseri shows that the new news feed will be just as little featured, ultimately (see below).
On the other hand, on the platform environment. On X, paid certification has allowed many accounts promoting false information to benefit from great visibility. Won’t highlighting paying users on Instagram highlight problem accounts, including unscrupulous influencers or simply people who also promote fake news? Because if X represents everything you should not do in terms of moderation, Instagram is not an example either.
To see how exactly Instagram plans to set up its new news feed. But it’s a safe bet that free accounts will be even less visible than paid ones.
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