Since Tiktok conquered the market, other social media platforms have also focused more on videos. This trend goes too far for Instagram users - in a petition they demand a turnaround. After the Kardashians also get involved, Insta boss Mosseri reacts personally.
Photographer Tati Bruening's "Make Instagram Instagram again" petition has been circulating on the social media platform for four days. The 22-year-old calls for a return to the photo focus: "Stop wanting to be Tikkok, I just want to see cute photos of my friends," she writes in her appeal.
In addition to the currently almost 200,000 signatories (as of Wednesday afternoon), top stars of the portal such as Kylie Jenner (361 million followers) and her half-sister Kim Kardashian (326 million followers) have now jumped on the bandwagon. They shared the petition on their channels.
As soon as the reality TV actresses got involved, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri reacted personally to the criticism - probably so unusually quickly to avoid the Snap Inc. debacle. When Kylie Jenner tweeted in 2018 that she would no longer use Snapchat, the stock plummeted 6.1 percent and lost a whopping $1.3 billion in market value in one day.
In a Twitter video, Mosseri addressed the concerns and criticism of the changed strategy. "We will continue to support photos. It's part of our heritage," says the 39-year-old in the clip. In doing so, he is directly addressing concerns that the social media platform is moving away from its roots. "However, I honestly have to say that I believe that Instagram will become more and more of a video portal over time. We see that even if we don't change anything," he adds. "We will also need to evolve because the world is changing rapidly and we need to change with it," Mosseri continued.
In further tweets, Mosseri also addresses the criticism that Instagram no longer prioritizes content from friends in users' personal feeds. "One thing I hear a lot is people wanting to see more content from friends in Feed. I'd love to see more of this in Feed, but all the growth in friend photos and videos has been in Stories and held in DMs."
And further: "We will continue to show photos and videos of friends at the top of the feed whenever we can, but the best way to keep up with friends seems to be the other features of Instagram." His tip: "If you want to make sure you don't miss anything from a friend or another account, add this account to your favorites and we will then display these posts at the top of the feed."
