Have you ever seen one of those Facebook status warning everyone that the social network is about to start charging people to access their accounts, and that they should share the status to convince Mark Zuckerberg to reconsider? A similar phenomenon has plagued Instagram lately, with posts claiming that only 7% of your followers can see photos and videos you share. It’s gotten so out of control that Instagram has had to respond.
In a series of posts on Twitter this week, the official Instagram account explained that, despite the copypasta that has spread all over the network over the past few months, nothing is intentionally being hidden from your feed. Rather, the algorithm is working as intended, and your feed adapts to your preferences.
“What shows up first in your feed is determined by what posts and accounts you engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often you use Instagram, how many people you follow, etc.” Instagram explained in a series of tweets. “We have not made any recent changes to feed ranking, and we never hide posts from people you’re following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.”
While this all could have been avoided if Instagram would simply allow users to view their feed chronologically, there is no truth to the rumor that the service is intentionally limiting how far your posts can spread, much less limiting them to specifically 7% of your followers. So don’t believe everything you read on Instagram.
