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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Instagram hits 3 billion monthly users www.theverge.com/news/784784/... Or to put it a different way: there are as many people using Instagram each month as the were people on the planet Earth in 1960.

theverge.com

Instagram hits 3 billion monthly users

Meta is now looking to drive growth further by testing changes for DMs and Reels.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Hasn't been for a long time ... Instagram isn’t just for square photos anymore www.theverge.com/news/676549/...

theverge.com

Instagram isn’t just for square photos anymore

Post your 3:4 photos.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

The only time anyone accuses Mark Zuckerberg of having real human emotions is Systrom explaining why Zuck acted like a petulant child after buying Instagram and then starving it of resources for a period of time since it was growing faster than his own Facebook app! www.theverge.com/news/646809/...

Zuckerberg had ‘real human’ emotions about Instagram’s growth.The Meta CEO’s reaction to Instagram’s growth, as Facebook’s growth plateaued, stirred complex feelings in him, Systrom says. “My experience of him is that he was always very happy to have Instagram in the family,” he testifies. “But also, I think as the founder of Facebook, he felt a lot of emotion around which one was better, meaning Instagram or Facebook, and I think there were real human emotional things going on there.”

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Reposted by Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures

Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

In the Trump era, could Meta really be forced to sell Instagram? We'll see... "Meanwhile, in recent weeks, Zuckerberg has personally lobbied Trump to drop the FTC lawsuit. The agency’s chair, Andrew Ferguson, recently suggested that he would obey such an order from Trump." www.theverge.com/pol...

theverge.com

Meta goes to trial to avoid a breakup of Instagram and WhatsApp

Zuckerberg and Sandberg are expected to testify.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

ChatGPT beats Instagram, TikTok to become the world’s most downloaded app www.moneycontrol.com/technology/c...

moneycontrol.com

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Reposted by Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures

Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

13 years ago #Instagram users were very angry that Facebook purchased Instagram, worrying it would destroy what was unique about the app and the visual culture it was building. It turns out those concerns were very justified.

Collage of 2012 Instagram posts reacting negatively to Instagram's sale to Facebook.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Expanding Teen Accounts to FB and Messenger is a welcome move, but there's still much to do. And an uptake of 54million teen accounts when there's more than a billion Instagram accounts shows the uptake of teen accounts isn't huge as of yet! about.fb.com/news/2025/04...

about.fb.com

We’re Introducing New Built-In Restrictions for Instagram Teen Accounts, and Expanding to Facebook and Messenger | Meta

We're announcing additional protections and expanding Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger to give parents more peace of mind across Meta apps.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

One feature no one really liked or used retired after less than a year ... No more ‘notes’ on Instagram posts. www.theverge.com/news/636727/...

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

In the US, Instagram is rolling out specific support for middle & high schools in reporting & addressing (via resources) bullying & other issues that might be amplified by social media. Instagram’s School Partnership Program – Prioritized Reporting to Help Students cyberbullying.org/instagram-sc...

cyberbullying.org

Instagram’s School Partnership Program – Prioritized Reporting to Help Students - Cyberbullying Research Center

Schools can now have Instagram prioritize reports they make of student-involved incidents on the platform to receive a faster response and resolution. Here's how.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

A private signal that some comments/commenters should be less visible for that user makes sense (it's NOT a public dislike button). Instagram starts testing new button that might downrank comments www.theverge.com/news/613143/...

theverge.com

Instagram starts testing new button that might downrank comments

The button is a downward-facing arrow.

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Reposted by Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures

Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

It's worse that users have no way to opt out of their DMs being fed to MetaAI by others they're talking to.

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Reposted by Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures

Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

It's poor form that end-to-end encryption on Instagram DMs (and presumably all Meta apps) is lost if anyone in the conversation mentions/uses Meta AI on relation to that msg (eg summarising it!).

Help centre text from Instagram showing sending text to meta ai undoes end to end encryption

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

"Meta will pay $25 million ... $22 million of Meta’s payment will go toward a fund for Trump’s presidential library. The remainder will go toward “legal fees and the other plaintiffs who signed onto the case,” per the report." variety.com/2025/digital...

variety.com

Meta to Pay Trump $25 Million to Settle 2021 Lawsuit Over His Facebook and Instagram Ban

Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle Donald Trump's lawsuit over the company's 2021 suspension of his Facebook and Instagram accounts,

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

I'm quitting Instagram. You should too. Mark Zuckerberg's horrible changes for Instagram — and Facebook — have become untenable, writes Lennon Torres. mashable.com/article/quit...

mashable.com

I'm quitting Instagram. You should too.

Mark Zuckerberg's horrible changes for Instagram — and Facebook — have become untenable, writes Lennon Torres.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

As was always going to happen, the ads are coming to Threads and it will be as messy as every other Meta product ... Threads is officially getting ads www.theverge.com/2025/1/24/24...

theverge.com

Threads is offically getting ads

It’s happening.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

"Instagram Reels has added a new feature that shows you a feed of videos that your friends have liked. The bad news: It works both ways, meaning your friends can now see every video you’ve liked." www.fastcompany.com/91266282/a-n...

fastcompany.com

A new Instagram feature might expose your embarrassing habits

Instagram Reels has added a new feature that allows your friends to see every video you’ve liked.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Insta/Meta must have been gutted that CapCut was only down for half a day (since it's a TikTok/Bytedance tool) as they desperately tried to capitalise on its absence to launch their own editing tool clone: Enter 'Edits'. 🙄 www.theverge.com/2025/1/19/24...

theverge.com

Instagram announces a blatant CapCut clone

“Edits” is currently available to preorder on iOS.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Instagram Reels can be 3 minutes long now www.theverge.com/2025/1/18/24...

theverge.com

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Having been adamant that Threads wasn't for politics, and that Instagram was for as little politics as possible, Mark going full MAGA suddenly means an about face, and now FB, Instagram and Threads are all about politics: www.theverge.com/2025/1/8/243...

theverge.com

Threads and Instagram are for politics now, says Adam Mosseri

Status reset.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Instagram will let you recap 2024 with a collage for your story / You can combine your favorite pictures from the year and share them with friends. www.theverge.com/2024/12/16/2...

theverge.com

Instagram will let you recap 2024 with a collage for your story

There are new text effects and secret phrases, too.

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Reposted by Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures

Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Wow, it's five years since the first copies of our @instagrambook.bsky.social saw the light of day!

Hardcopy of the Instagram book sitting on a mailing package.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

In true Meta/Instagram/#Threads tradition, innovation somewhere else is being shamelessly copied as Threads tests the equivalent of Bluesky's Starter Packs: Threads follows Bluesky’s starter packs with curated collections of people to follow www.theverge.com/2024/12/12/2...

theverge.com

Threads follows Bluesky’s starter packs with curated collections of people to follow

You’ll see the collections on your For You feed.

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Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures @instagrambook.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Meta rolling out the ability for anyone, esp teens, to reset their algorithmic content recommendations is a pretty big deal (and long overdue)! Reshape Your Instagram With a Recommendations Reset about.fb.com/news/2024/11...

Series of image showing how to reset algorithmic recommendations on Instagram.

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