GoKawiilAdam Mosseri has warned that users who switch off Instagram’s recommendation system end up with a worse experience, telling an Australian press briefing that engagement can fall by as much as 50% and that satisfaction scores fall off a cliff.
Mosseri spoke on Thursday as Australia consults on legislation that would force platforms to prompt users to turn ranking off, the ABC reported.
“If you go to a chronological feed, it ends up getting overwhelmed with content from companies, brands, and publishers,” he said.
Users miss more content and spend less time on the platform.
Read the objection carefully, because it is not what it sounds like. Mosseri is not arguing that a chronological feed harms users. He is arguing that it produces less engagement and less time on the platform.
Australia’s draft Digital Duty of Care bill exists because legislators believe engagement and time on platform are the harm. The measurement he offers as a warning is the outcome the bill is trying to produce.
The brands and publishers’ point is the stronger half, and it deserves engaging with. A feed ordered purely by time does fill with whoever posts most, which is generally not your friends.
That is a real design problem, and it is also a problem Instagram created: the reason professional accounts post at volume is that the ranked feed rewarded them for it. Removing the ranking does not remove the behaviour it trained.
It is worth setting the warning against Meta’s own recent messaging. The company has said its AI is making people spend more time on Instagram, presented as a success.
Mosseri now presents less time as a harm to users. Both statements can be true only if time on Instagram is good for the people spending it, which is the exact proposition the Australian bill declines to accept and which a jury in the Meta social media trial is currently being asked to weigh.
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