Adam Mosseri, Meta’s head of Instagram and Threads, recently provided insights on how the popularity of a video affects its quality on Instagram. Mosseri clarified in a video posted by The Verge that while Instagram aims to display the “highest-quality video” possible, a video’s quality may be lowered if it fails to hold viewers’ attention over time. He clarified that this choice was in line with data that indicates the majority of views happen early on, after which a less demanding video format is used to maximize resources.
For Meta, this idea is not new; in fact, the business has already discussed various encoding techniques depending on the degree of involvement of a video. However, Mosseri’s remarks have sparked a new discussion, with some users wondering if this strategy favours well-known creators, potentially leading to an imbalance. Concerns that smaller creators are at a disadvantage when competing for audience engagement versus popular, high-quality content were echoed by a Threads reviewer who referred to Meta’s approach as “truly insane.”
In response to the comments, Mosseri made it clear that these changes are made overall rather than specifically for each video. He claimed that while the system favors producers with a greater view count, it is not a rigid cutoff point; rather, it is a progressive scale where more popular content receives more processing power and storage space.
Some users are concerned that promoting well-known creators with excellent encoding will only increase their visibility and hinder the development of smaller creators. While acknowledging that this is “the right concern,” Mosseri pointed out that interaction is usually driven by content rather than quality. He maintained that although there are occasional changes in quality, they are slight and have no effect on viewership. According to his observations, consumers place a higher value on content than makers do on video quality.
This ongoing debate highlights the need for platforms to achieve a balance between managing resources and promoting different creators by posing questions about how algorithms may affect exposure on social media.