Instagram Denies Limiting the Visibility of Posts on Its Platform

Instagram has discredited a growing rumour that the Facebook-owned company was limiting the visibility of posts to just 7 percent of an account's followers. The company earlier on Wednesday published a number of responses on Twitter, clearing up the confusion around the rumour as well as detailing how the user feeds work on its platform. The company had forced its algorithmic feeds on users back in 2016 and ever since the platform users have panicked time and again over the reach of their posts.

Off late a number of unsuspecting Instagram users have been sharing a post claiming that “Instagram has been limiting our posts so just about 7% of our followers see out posts.” Apparently, the hoax had gotten so big that Instagram decided to officially address the misinformation.

“We've noticed an uptick in posts about Instagram limiting the reach of your photos to 7% of your followers, and would love to clear this up,” the company tweeted.

Instagram debunked the rumour saying what shows up in individual feeds is determined by a number of factors, including the freshness of the posts or how a particular uses the platform and the social media platform is not limiting the reach of any posts.

“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 added in a follow-up tweet.

The company also wrote that it has not made any feed ranking algorithm changes, if the users keep scrolling, they will see all the posts.

According to a report in Buzzfeed, the Instagram reach hoax is not just limited to individual users, but smaller brands with as many as hundred thousand followers have fallen for this rumour and posted something like this:

A separate report from New York Magazine mentioned that the Instagram reach hoax started gaining momentum sometime last week, but it is not the first time that such a post has popped up on Instagram. It is just the first of this year. Social media platforms are filled with unsuspecting users, who take such posts at the face value and panic.