LONDON: Facebook-owned Instagram its algorithm after being accused of suppressing pro-Palestinian content in the midst of Israeli atrocities on Palestinians.
According to an international magazine, Instagram typically surfaces original content in its stories over existing, re-shared posts, but will now begin to give equal weighting to both.
A group of employees had complained that content featuring Arabic or pro-Palestinian content was often flagged or received a label warning. “I fear we are at a point where the next mistake will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and we could see our communities migrating to other platforms,” one unnamed employee wrote.
A company spokeswoman said the logic for prioritising original posts was that most Instagram users had more stories to follow than time to check them – and the company believed people were “more interested in original stories from their closest friends”.
“It’s also caused people to believe we were suppressing stories about particular topics or points of view. We want to be really clear – this isn’t the case,” she said, adding, “This applied to any post that’s re-shared in stories, no matter what it’s about.”
Under the new scheme, which Instagram said it would introduce gradually, all posts and stories will be treated equally. This means that the app will not favor original content over re-shared posts.
During the recent Gaza conflict, social media platforms were heavily used to spread messages of support on both sides. Many pro-Palestinian messages were among those widely re-shared – which means they would have received less prominence than original posts under the current system.
Earlier this month Twitter restricted the account of a Palestinian writer, which it later said was done “in error.” Instagram ended up apologizing after many accounts were unable to post Palestine-related content for several hours on May 6th, a move that head of Instagram Adam Mosseri tweeted was due to a “technical bug.”
