Instagram's announcement that it will lower the quality of older, less popular videos has been criticized by creators as "alarming." Some users of the Meta-owned social media platform expressed concern after the company's boss Adam Mosseri said high quality was reserved for more popular content. "We prefer higher quality... for creators who get more views,"
Mosseri wrote in a thread post on Sunday. One creator told the BBC that this was "disheartening" for those who switched to making content for Instagram from other platforms. "I think this is incredibly damaging to the creative arts," Siete Savone said. The 25-year-old creative said she enjoys using the platform and understands the need to update it and add new features. But she said a line needs to be drawn at actions that "actually undermine the quality of an individual's original artistic work." "No one should have to worry that content quality will no longer be maintained because Instagram maintains an 'engagement bias' that favors high-profile creators," she added. Mosseri said Instagram degrades the quality of videos that haven't been viewed for a long time, and most views occur immediately after publication. If the platform becomes more popular, he added, the quality of the videos will improve again. Social media consultant Matt Navarra told the BBC that the move "seems at odds with Instagram's previous messaging and efforts to encourage new creators." "How can creators get noticed if they're penalized for not being popular?" he said. And there's a risk of creating a cycle where more established creators reap the rewards of more audience engagement than those who are building a fanbase, he said. "The rules of the game should be equal between small and large creators," Siete agreed. Cost and qualityInstagram's decision will be based on the price of streaming video. Higher resolution videos or videos with more visual elements like edits, images, and other clips may require more processing power to encode. They are usually larger than lower resolution videos, so they require more storage space on servers. Another source responded to Mosseri's post saying they understand the benefits of the potential savings in storage costs, but they don't outweigh the downsides. "From a creator's perspective, it's annoying to spend time creating high-quality content only to have it downgraded to a lower resolution," she said. In May, Instagram announced changes to its system for recommending content, especially videos, to "give all creators an equal chance to break through." But Navarra responded to users' concerns about the impact on small creators, saying he agrees with Mosseri's assertion that people will always value a video's content over its quality. He said creators should focus on how to create compelling content tailored to their audience, rather than worrying too much about Instagram compromising their quality. Mosseri clarified to users on Sunday that Instagram won't decide whether to lower or improve the quality of individual videos, but will do so in a "holistic" way, on a "sliding scale," adding that he believes the difference in quality is "not big." "The goal is to show people the highest quality content we can," he said in his first video response. The BBC has reached out to Instagram for more information. The social media platform's attempts to make video central to the app experience have sparked backlash from some users and developers before. After facing criticism from creators and celebrities like Kylie Jenner, she revised her plans to move further away from traditional photos and the so-called "grid" posting format in 2022, focusing more on short-form video content like TikTok.
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