The Facebook-owned photo-sharing app, Instagram has made modifications to its algorithm after a group of its employees complained that the users were not able to view pro-Palestinian content during the brutality imposed on Gaza. Instagram usually surfaces original posts in its stories before reposted content, but from now will start to give the same weighting to both, the company confirmed on Sunday.
Furthermore, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have been scrutinized over the past several weeks about how they controlled the content concerning the violence caused by the Israeli armed forces in Palestine. Moreover, Instagram also stated that its users had exhibited more interest in original content from their friends than reposted content. That is why it modified algorithms to support original content.
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Recently, pro-Palestine activists struck Facebook with a coordinated campaign where they have been victorious in pushing down the app review rating of the social networking platform on both app stores of Apple and Google.
Several of the issues are considered to have been prompted by large-scale computerized moderation, rather than intentional attempts by people to curb content, according to reports. Instagram has further informed that said this recently proclaimed shift towards balanced weighting of original posts and re-shared stories will happen over time, rather than being an immediate change.
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“But there’s been an increase— not just now but in the past as well — in how many people are resharing posts, and we’ve seen a bigger impact than expected on the reach of these posts,” the spokesperson said. “Stories that reshare feed posts aren’t getting the reach people to expect them to, and that’s not a good experience.”
Source: BBC News
