Instagram responds to post reach manipulation rumors

For the past few months, Instagram users have been hearing of a rumor that the company is manipulating the reach of user posts. Users have complained about getting to see only half of their friends’ posts.

In response to these rumors, Instagram has released an official statement on Twitter: “we never hide posts from people you’re following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all.”

What shows up first in your feed is determined by what posts and accounts you engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often you use Instagram, how many people you follow, etc.

— Instagram (@instagram) January 22, 2019

The company also stated that there have been no recent changes made to the process of feed algorithm. The level of user interaction, and not chronology, determines the order of posts in a feed, just as it is done in Facebook. Instagram had adopted Facebook’s feed algorithm in June 2016.

We have not made any recent changes to feed ranking, and we never hide posts from people you're following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.✌️

— Instagram (@instagram) January 22, 2019

Moreover, a recent study supervised by Instagram noticed that users missed out on an average of 70% of feed and 50% of friends’ posts before the introduction of this algorithm.

Instagram attempts to put a rest to these rumors by stating that scrolling down and regular user-interaction is necessary for getting to see the latest posts of one’s ‘followings’.