Instagram boss says users will be ‘overwhelmed’ with brand content in algorithm-free world
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/sep/10/instagram-boss-says-users-will-be-overwhelmed-with-brand-content-in-algorithm-free-world
128 points · 40 comments · view on lemmy.world
40 Comments
hiphopheaven@programming.dev · 71 pts · 2d
You are concerned that you will make less money
vk6flab@lemmy.radio · 55 pts · 2d
So .. people will see the platform for what it really is?
alpha1beta@piefed.social · 55 pts · 2d
What he really means is you'll see more native posts from brands, and not see as many ads, because they hide posts from brands to force them to pay to reach their own followers.
Everyone at Meta can fuck themselves to death
alpha1beta@piefed.social · 24 pts · 2d
I'll share a short story of how the algorithm sucks. A friend's mom was dying of cancer. I knew it would be within a few days or week. He was texting me a lot - but in random bursts - trying to distract himself from the inevitable. I scrolled through IG, thought I saw it all, and having not heard from him in a while, I texted him something somewhat goofy.
He texted me back, "My mom just died". I had no idea. Sure enough, scroll another 5 minutes and buried at the end of my feed is his post from less than 2 hours ago.
Instagram made me look like a dick because they'd rather show me 26 hour old content, than 2 hour content.
hiphopheaven@programming.dev · 1 pts · 2d
He should have called you with the phone
alpha1beta@piefed.social · 8 pts · 2d
He had a few more urgent things to handle. I'm sure I would've gotten a call or text hours or a day or so later. But the algorithm decided that it didn't want to show me sad news and would rather send me engagement bait.
jsnfwlr@lemmy.ml · -12 pts · 2d
You used your feed for info, rather than looking at his profile or asking him politely. That's not on Meta - that's on you.
alpha1beta@piefed.social · 10 pts · 2d
That's the dumbest possible response. And FYI this was right as they swapped out the original the chrono feed. I was vaguely aware it was happening, I don't know if I knew it had rolled out to me yet. I had only had a sneaking suspicion he'd post it there. And as I mentioned, I knew she had days to maybe a week. It would've been one of the top posts in a chrono feed.
Meta, decided, for their own gain, to change how their app worked, with essentially no warning, no choice and no transparency - wasn't like there was a big notification saying Your Feed Changed. The only thing different visually was the order of the timestamps.
For anyone else, I'll leave another example: https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2014/12/24/inadvertent-algorithmic-cruelty/
lacethespace@sh.itjust.works · -3 pts · 2d
Are you a bot? Asking for a friend.
DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf · 41 pts · 2d
Meanwhile here on the Fediverse/Threadiverse, people are doing fine without an algorithm other than just boosting someone else's post.
lemmysmash@piefed.social · 40 pts · 2d
Their real concern must be in the news title, not the fake one:
hunnybubny@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 1d
Cancer cannot into cancer.
Terrible news.
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip · 34 pts · 2d
And whose fault is that, allowing all that brand content on the platform?
Makhno@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2d
Feed us the cancer, sell us the cure
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de · 31 pts · 2d
What do these people think the word "algorithm" means? Something something dihydrogen monoxide.
Tiresia@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 2d
Algorithm means Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. His name was transliterated into Latin as Algoritmi and from there into English as Algorithm.
Using 'algorithm' to refer to anything other than the person is linguistic drift and therefore utterly unacceptable. Even if you're "pulling an Algorithm" by relying on his mathematical work, then you're pulling an Algorithm every time you use the number zero. Using "(pulling an) Algorithm" to refer only to a structured set of mathematically precise instructions is just so ignorant.
Anyway, what were you saying about people being dumb for using "algorithm" in a different sense than how it was used previously?
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 2d
"Algorithm" is a term from computer science that doesn't inherently have anything to do with social media or content recommendations. Those things are examples of algorithms, but far from the only ones.
Tiresia@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 1d
That is an example application of Algorithm's work, but far from the only one. Algorithm doesn't inherently have to do with information theory or programming languages.
Linguistic drift comes for us all. "Eventually everyone who hates this thing is going to be dead, and the ones that use it are going to be in control".
LodeMike@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 1d
Haha yes all words change meaning. You're so smart for figuring that out.
There's a difference between the two changes though. Most notably the first one doesn't conflict with the name, whereas this new usage which only makes sense within the context of corporate-made social media from the last 15 years.
reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net · 13 pts · 2d
Wouldn’t they only see that if they followed brands? When I left ig a few years back besides the ads every three posts my home feed was just my friends’ posts and I could scroll to the end (all caught up) in 10 or so minutes if I checked it once a day
hiphopheaven@programming.dev · 7 pts · 2d
they would probably still inject ton of ads from brands
cardboardboxfort@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
Domino's has been doing it for years on Reddit, for example. Lots of "goofy" posts like the Domino's driver dancing on a customers porch because they asked him to through their door-bell camera. Dumb stuff like that.
To say nothing about all the brand discussion about Marvels latest projects on their. 100% Disney is paying for an encouraging that pseudo-advertising behavior.
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 11 pts · 2d
Actually, funny story, if you post more often actually people find it kind of irritating and they block you
neatchee@piefed.social · 12 pts · 2d
Yeah the behavior they're talking about is enabled by their algorithm. Without big brother curating how much of the content makes it to your feed, people just stop following spammy accounts.
It's presented as convenience ("we'll manage that for you") but it's actually manipulative ("we'll tune it to exactly as much as you will tolerate")
hiphopheaven@programming.dev · 2 pts · 2d
You are right
Muffi@programming.dev · 8 pts · 2d
Last time i saw a friend using instagram, about every 3rd post was sponsored... So not much different?
newton@piefed.social · 8 pts · 2d
You guys still use instagram? 😂😂😂😂
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 2d
Professional liar says what
hiphopheaven@programming.dev · 4 pts · 2d
It is such an obvious lie
eremophila@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 2d
anyone who still uses instagram is likely to be overwhelmed just getting out of bed
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 2d
the actual boss is zuckerberg.
cardboardboxfort@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d
Suckaturd
treesquid@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 21h
Funny take, because they wouldn't be shown branded content AT ALL, unless people voluntarily followed the brands. Then, if those brands spammed everyone's feed and everyone saw it all and it overwhelmed them, then people would unfollow those brands. You would only see what you wanted to see, from the people and organizations you wanted to see it from, and you'd see everything they posted, rather than a black box algorithm choosing what to amplify, what to hide, and what to insert into your feed. No algorithm sounds like heaven.
NathanRanch@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 1d
*Laughing in doesn't use Instagram
neatchee@piefed.social · 3 pts · 2d
This says a lot more about their platform management than it does about the value of their algorithm
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 3 pts · 2d
Use pixelfed, problem solved.
executivechimp@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 2d
Pixelfed kind of sucks though and the creator's a dick.
(Not saying you shouldn't leave Instagram or trying to defend them)
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 2 pts · 2d
It's fine to me. I haven't seen anything bad from the creator. He's a perfectionist, but that just means I have to wait for features, which is fine.
executivechimp@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 2d
I wanted to like it. I've tried using it a few times over the last few years but the UI always seemed janky and underdeveloped, both in first- and third-party apps . The official app doesn't seem to provide any benefit for posting images over posting to mastodon. The android app used to have an image editor but that had been removed the last time I tried it. I don't really get what the point of it is.
Juice@midwest.social · 1 pts · 20h
I'd never considered how the algo might actually be improving user experience.
I still haven't considered it, and I never will, but I never had
Transtaglia@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 2d