Kylie Jenner & Kim Kardashian Urge Instagram To Stop Copying TikTok, IG Head Responds
“Stop trying to be TikTok, I just want to see cute pictures of my friends.”
Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner are among the millions calling to “Make Instagram Instagram again.”
The celebrity sisters and beauty brand moguls both reshared a post to their IG Stories criticizing Instagram’s recent updates, some of which have been perceived as mimicking rival social media site TikTok.
“Stop trying to be TikTok,” photographer Tati Bruening’s original post read. “I just want to see cute pictures of my friends. Sincerely, everyone.” It had amassed nearly 2.2 million likes by Thursday morning.
As NBC News notes, Instagram head Adam Mosseri addressed backlash over the limited rollout of Instagram’s redesign just one day after Jenner and Kardashian reshared the “Make Instagram Instagram again” post.
“If you’re seeing a new, full-screen version of a feed or you’re hearing about it, know that this is a test,” Adam Mosseri said in a video addressing the concerns over the platform’s changes.
“It’s a test to a few percentage of people out there, and the idea is that a more full-screen experience, not only for video but for photos, might be a bit more fun and engaging experience. But I also want to be clear, it’s not yet good.”
While Instagram will always support photos-sharing, it is also showing users more video via TikTok-style clips called Reels, Mosseri added.
“I have to be honest, I do believe more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time,” he said. “We see this even if we change nothing.”
Some replies to Mosseri’s video from verified accounts have picked up traction in the comments section.
“People do VIDEOS because we have no reach on our photos!!” influencer Alina Tanasa wrote. “As a content creator i need and want reach and with photos you cut all the reach and you promote only videos.”
“Give equal opportunity for photo and video sharing. Stop killing off photo sharing. This isn’t TikTok,” added photographer Alex Stead. Another photographer, Sam Horine, chimed in, “The next all hands should just be y’all reading these comments out loud.”
But continued criticism from highly visible users could have major consequences. NBC reports that after Jenner tweeted she would no longer use Snapchat after a redesign in 2018, the app’s shares fell 7 percent, amounting to more than a $1 billion loss in Snapchat value.
This also isn’t the first time Instagram’s redesign has been panned. When the feed was switched from its vertical scrolling homepage to a “tap-to-advance” format, ensuring backlash forced a revert. At the time, Mosseri tweeted, “this was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated.”