Meta announced two new view options for Instagram feeds today: a "Following" view, which shows all posts from people you follow in chronological order, and a "Favorites" view, which allows you to favorite up to 50 Instagram users and have their content highly prioritized in your feed.
These are both great ideas. But I don't think Meta really wants people to use them.
If Meta really wanted us to use these two views, they wouldn't have hid access to them behind the app's logo in the upper left corner of the screen, which is a total blind spot for anyone that has used the app for more than five minutes. If Meta really wanted us to use these two views, they would offer the option to make them a default setting rather than insisting the app resets to the standard algorithmic view every time you open the app. If Meta really wanted us to use these two views, they would never have transitioned away from chronological views in the first place.
To me, the decision to roll out these views has a clear dual purpose. First, it gives Meta partial immunity in antitrust hearings to go on the stand and say, "We are not a publisher because our users have the ability to choose whether or not they want to see our algorithmic content," even while making that choice inconvenient enough that very few users actually stray from the default. Second, I think it gives Meta leverage to bring even more sponsored content into the algorithmic feed view under the false pretense that those users are "opting into that view." In other words, I think Meta is both covering its own butt while padding its own wallet.
Maybe I'm just being cynical. But when it comes to Meta, it's hard to be too cynical. I don't buy the altruism here.
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