Instagram is introducing some changes to its ranking system to highlight original content created by small accounts.
The platform says that for a long time, users with a lot of followers and accounts that share reposts have been viewed more.
Now it is looking for a way with the new changes that will be implemented in the coming months to show itself equal to all users.
The change is being made after several months of criticism that users have had towards the platform where they have expressed that they have been negatively affected by the algorithm.
With the new ranking, accounts with fewer followers will have more shares, reposts will be replaced by original content in recommendations, tags will be added, and accounts that only share content from others (aggregate accounts) will not be recommended.
Instagram says that recommendations will show content to a small audience that it thinks will like it. Once people interact, the most clicked Reels will be shown to a wider audience, the most successful of this group will be recommended to even more users and so on.
Instagram believes that this change will give all users an equal opportunity to get an audience.
If Instagram finds two or more identical Instagram posts, it will only recommend the original. The original post will replace the repost in the application recommendations. The platform states that it will not replace content that has been visibly changed.
As a result, Instagram will not replace content that has been altered to become humorous posts. Content will only be replaced in recommendation spaces such as Explore, Reels and recommendations displayed on homepages.
Reposts will have tags that will link users back to the original post. The tag will be visible to the account's followers. Currently, the post creator or reposting account has the option to remove the tag. It is possible that in the future Instagram will no longer allow this.
In the coming months, accounts that consistently post other users' content will not appear in recommendations. However, this will not affect their display to aggregate account followers.