Instagram is introducing some new changes to its ranking systems to better highlight content from smaller, original creators across the social network. The Meta-owned platform says that historically, creators with large followings and accounts that share reposted content have achieved the most reach on the platform. Now they are trying to give all YouTubers equal reach in terms of reach with a series of new changes that will be implemented over the next few months.
The platform is rolling out a ranking change that gives smaller creators more exposure by replacing reposts in recommendations with original content, adding labels to reposted content, and removing content aggregators from recommendations.
Instagram says it has been working on a new method of ranking recommendations to show suitable content to a small audience it thinks will like it. As people engage with the content, the top-performing Reels are shown to a slightly larger audience, then the best of them are shown to an even larger group, and so on. Instagram believes this change will give all creators an equal chance to find an audience.
Additionally, if Instagram finds two or more identical pieces of content on Instagram, it will only recommend the original. This change means that the original content will directly replace the republished content in the app’s recommendations. The company points out that content will not be replaced if it has been significantly changed. For example, Instagram does not replace content that has been edited to become a meme or parody. Additionally, content will only be replaced in places where Instagram recommends posts, such as the Explore page, Reels, and in-feed recommendations.
Instagram will also begin adding labels to newly posted content, linking users to the original creator. The label will be visible to followers of the account that reposts it. The company says that the original creator or the account reposting the content will have the option to remove the label for now. It is possible that Instagram will no longer allow creators to remove the label in the future.
Another new change affects meme accounts, or pages dedicated to reposting other creators’ content. The company says that in the coming months, accounts that repeatedly post other users’ content that they did not create or improve will not appear in recommendations. Instagram notes that this change will not affect how people see content from aggregator accounts they follow.