The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has locked horns with Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner after the pair criticised changes on the social media service as “trying to be TikTok”.
The celebrity sisters posted a message to their hundreds of millions of followers stating “Make Instagram Instagram Again” complaining about the company’s new focus on video.
“Stop trying to be TikTok, I just want to see cute photos of my friends,” the post said.
In a video response posted to Twitter, Mr Mosseri said that Instagram expected more and more of the user-uploaded content to become video over time – and that this was something the platform had to adapt to accommodate.
“We’re going to have to lean in to that shift,” he said.
The new changes to Instagram include copying TikTok’s algorithmically suggested main feed, as well as Meta pushing “reels” which are short videos in the style of TikTok content.
Users have complained that the change to the app has undermined their ability to see posts from their loves ones which Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has historically described as his social media platforms’ main purpose.
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Mr Mosseri said that video content is what Instagram users are liking, sharing and generally consuming more on the platform – although it will continue to support photographs.
He recognised there were criticisms of the full-screen feed which Instagram was currently testing and which some users have complained about.
He also acknowledged that users were complaining about receiving more recommendations – posts from accounts they don’t follow.
Mr Mosseri said these were meant to help everyone discover new content, and that they were an “effective and important” way to help content creators reach new people.
Criticism from the socialites and social media influencers can have a significant impact on the the platforms’ performance in the stock market.
When Jenner criticised the redesign of Snapchat in 2018 – saying she doesn’t open the app any more – the company’s shares had a 7% drop.
