The Kardashians hate the new Instagram - The Verge
Kylie Jenner and her sister Kim Kardashian both shared a plea to Instagram, asking the app to stop trying to be TikTok. Instagram has introduced a slew of product updates that users say make it feel like a worse TikTok.
If you’ve opened Instagram recently and noticed more Reels on your feed or less engagement on your posts and felt the platform was beginning to look a liiiittle too much like TikTok, you’re not alone. The app’s second most-followed person agrees.
Kylie Jenner shared a screenshot of another user’s post on her Instagram Stories today, longing for the good old days of Instagram as a photo sharing app.
“Make Instagram Instagram again,” the post says. “(Stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends). Sincerely, everyone.” Her sister Kim Kardashian also shared the same post, which has over 1.1 million likes. The associated Change.org petition has nearly 100,000 signatures.
Image: Instagram
Instagram’s steady creep into TikTok territory isn’t new — Meta, which owns Instagram, has been pushing Reels for months, which itself is a TikTok clone product. The company has incentivized creators making Reels by rewarding them with cash bonuses and has said it downranks videos that are reposted from TikTok.
Up until this point, it seems Jenner has suffered in silence. But more recent changes like a full-screen effect on videos — and last week’s news that nearly all new videos posted to Instagram will automatically become Reels — seem to have hit a nerve.
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