Meta seems to be doubling down on irrelevant content displayed on Facebook and Instagram's home pages.
Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that it would more than double the amount of content from accounts users don't follow in an attempt to recommend them content they'll find interesting, per Mashable.
Facebook and Instagram have recently come under fire for recommending content from accounts users didn't choose to follow, which was interpreted as them changing their platform to compete with TikTok.
Facebook-Instagram Recommendation Algorithm Details
Zuckerberg mentioned that by the end of 2023, the "Home" section of the many-a user of Facebook and Instagram would contain more content from across their respective platforms, even if they don't follow those creators.
According to The Verge, the "Home" section's shift from users' social graph or list of friends to content from people they don't follow is a result of Zuckerberg's push to build meta's "Discovery Engine."
The Discovery Engine was created to make Meta capable enough to compete with TikTok's "heavy use" of AI to recommend videos regardless of where they come from, which made the latter app become one of the most used apps in the world.
"Right now, about 15% of the content in a person's Facebook feed and a little more than of their Instagram feed is recommended by our AI from people, groups, or accounts that you don't know," Zuckerberg explained. "We expect these numbers to more than double by the end of next year."
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Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, also addressed the changes earlier this week in response to the changes' unpopularity.
He reaffirmed that the changes Zuckerberg wanted to make would happen regardless of their unpopularity. However, he made a promise that the incoming recommendations would be improved and get better over time as it is "one of the most effective and important ways" to help creators reach more people.
Popular Reception To Facebook And Instagram's Changes
Needless to say, users of Facebook and Instagram went online to voice their disapproval of the upcoming changes while calling out Meta's efforts to compete with TikTok.
Twitter user @gremlita tweeted that Instagram's "home" and "explore" tabs have been rendered pointless because of the changes, while @T0niT0ne said that Instagram is "trying so hard" to compete with TikTok.
"If I wanted to see video after video from random pages I don't follow, I wouldn't be on Instagram," @T0nit0ne said. "Do what we need from [Instagram,] and bring back the photos of our actual friends!!!"
Another Twitter user, @Nadeshot, mentioned that Instagram is "spiritually dead" because of the changes; he also predicted Instagram would fail due to TikTok's superior algorithm making Instagram's changes useless.
How To Avoid Seeing Unwanted Content
Fortunately, Tech Crunch has a solution. If you only want to see photos from your friends on Instagram, you can switch to a feed of only people you follow by tapping the platform's logo and then selecting "Following."
As for Facebook, this trick is done for you as it separated its "Home" from the tab that would contain the content Meta wants to highlight, which is contained in "Feeds."
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