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Zuckerberg says nearly 30% of Instagram & FB feeds will be content from people you don't follow

Facebook and Instagram will soon increase the amount of content you see from people you don't follow.

Donovan Erskine

July 27, 2022 3:25 PM

Instagram

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The current direction of Instagram has been a point of discussion around the internet lately. As the platform looks to compete with TikTok, it’s continued to push Reels (its short form video content) harder and harder. The same issue applies to Facebook, which shares a parent company with Instagram in Meta. During the latest company earnings call, Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg stated that roughly 15 percent of the content users see on Facebook and Instagram is from accounts that they don’t follow, and he expects that number to eventually double.

It was during the Q2 2022 Facebook (META) earnings call that company co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the recent changes users have noticed to how content is presented to them on both Facebook and Instagram. 15 percent of the content that users are fed on their timeline is from accounts that they aren’t actually following, with the majority of it being Reels. It’s something that Facebook and Instagram users have been quite critical of, but the company expects that number to increase to 30 percent in the future.

Instagram first added the ability to share videos several years ago. In 2019, the company created Reels, a short form video feature that allows users to attach music to their videos, and take advantage of multiple other tools that allows it to compete with TikTok. On TikTok, the majority of content that users see is on their “For You” page, and it’s typically not from accounts that they follow, but rather based on their interests as determined by an influencer. It appears that this is what Facebook and Instagram are looking to emulate with Reels.

For those that were hoping Instagram and Facebook would hear the user outcry and pull back on the video push from accounts they don’t follow, it appears that the opposite is happening. For more news out of Meta’s earnings report and subsequent earnings call, Shacknews has the information you need.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_