Many Instagram creators are worried the platform’s new sensitivity content filter is hiding their posts from their followers. Various creators say their content is being hidden and their viewers can’t see their content without manually changing the filter’s censorship setting.
Instagram’s new content sensitivity filter
Instagram rolled out the sensitivity filter on July 20. The new filter allows people to set limits on the sensitivity of the content they see on the Explore page. By default, the filter hides a certain level of sensitivity and censors those posts out of the Discovery tab. For instance, topics about “guns” or “capitalism” are reportedly hidden.
How are this affecting creators?
Creators who deal with consistently sensitive topics worry their content isn’t popping up in their followers’ feeds. In a conversation with The Verge, Phillip Miner, an artist and the creator of the magazine Natural Pursuits, shared a post warning creators and viewers content about the situation.
Many creators are letting their audience know about the filter and asking them to adjust the setting if they want to see their content. Unfortunately, it’s possible many of their viewers won’t see the post and not change the setting.
Instagram says creators shouldn’t worry
Instagram says creators shouldn’t worry because it was already limiting the amount of sensitive posts people could see on their feed. This new filter allows viewers to further limit the sensitive content they see on their feeds. They can also go the opposite direction and use the filter to lower censorship if they want to let more sensitive content appear in their feeds.
Now that viewers can adjust the sensitivity of the posts they see, it could allow for more content to get through. However, if they want to make tweaks to their sensitivity filter, users have to do this manually by diving into Instagram’s settings and making the changes. It’s possible that many Instagram users won’t have the desire to dig through these settings, or simply may not know about the option to control the sensitivity filter at all. So, while Instagram is trying to do its part to give users the tools to control what kind of content pops into their feed, it may yet present real challenges to certain creators who are attempting to spread their content on the platform.