Instagram is clamping down on aggregator accounts that flood your feed with content they didn’t uniquely create or meaningfully alter. The company’s originality guidelines, which previously applied to Reels, will now extend to photo and carousel posts, rendering more accounts that mainly post unoriginal content ineligible for recommendations.
Instagram aims to give more credit to original content creators with this change. Per a Thursday blog post, accounts won’t appear in places where Instagram recommends content if they primarily upload others’ work without “adding meaningful creative input.” Just adding a border or crediting the original creator in the caption isn’t enough.
Content aggregators who become ineligible can check their account status for an update on their standing and can become eligible again if most of their recent posts are considered original in a 30-day period.
The way Instagram shows you content from accounts you follow isn’t changing. Photos or videos you took and content you designed or materially edited fall under original content, according to the company.
Instagrammers can review the content guidelines to see what qualifies as original content. More features Instagram recently introduced include reposts, which credit the original poster and appear in a sharer’s profile, and the ability to view friends’ locations on an Instagram map.
Instagram is also currently testing premium, paid subscriptions in some locations, which would provide extra features like seeing who has viewed your story multiple times, creating unlimited stories lists beyond just “close friends,” spotlighting one story per week so more people see it, making a super heart reaction for stories, extending your stories for another 24 hours and previewing stories without showing up as a viewer. The premium Instagram accounts are priced at around $1 to $2 per month where they’re being trialed.
Instagram didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
