Instagram to bring back chronological feed, says company head

The company's algorithmically sorted feed, introduced in 2016, and then updated in 2017 to include recommended posts, is disliked by many users

Meta-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram is reportedly working on a version of its feed that would show users' posts in chronological order, the company's head Adam Mosseri said during a hearing before a Senate subcommittee.

The company's algorithmically sorted feed, introduced in 2016, and then updated in 2017 to include recommended posts, is widely disliked by users who prefer to have their posts and their friends' posts surface in a timely manner, The Verge reported.

The current feed uses AI to create what Instagram considers a more personalised feed, based on users' activity. But it has remained generally unpopular among a vast swath of users, despite the company's assertions otherwise.

Mosseri appeared before the Senate subcommittee on Wednesday where he was grilled by senators about child safety issues on the app, prompted in part by revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen, who provided internal documents to The Wall Street Journal that suggested the company was aware its app may be "toxic" for teenagers.

During his testimony, Mosseri proposed the creation of an "industry body" that would determine best practices over the handling of children's data and parental controls to help keep children safe online.

The body would receive input from parents, regulators and civil society, to create universal standards and protections. Mosseri said platforms would need to earn the protections of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act by following those standards.

Senators seemed skeptical that such an an "industry body" could be effective, the report said.

On Tuesday, Instagram has rolled out the "Take a Break" feature it started testing last month to users in the US and other countries.

--IANS

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