Instagram Creates Controversy, Video Quality Depends on Popularity

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – Instagram has become a topic of conversation again after the Head of Instagram and Threads, Adam Mosseri, revealed that the quality of videos on this platform can be influenced by its popularity.

Quoted from Tech Crunch, Monday (28/10/2024), in his upload to Threads, Mosseri explained that popular Instagram videos will be displayed in higher quality, while videos that are less attractive to viewers will be presented in lower quality.

Reasons Behind This Policy

Mosseri said that Instagram always tries to display videos with the best quality. However, if a video does not get many views in a short time, Meta’s platform will lower the quality.

This is done because most views occur at the beginning of the video. FYI, this is actually nothing new.

Last year, Meta also mentioned that they were using an enc configurationoding differs based on the content’s popularity level. Even so, this policy is back in the spotlight after Mosseri explained the details in Threads.

User Concerns

Many users question this policy. Some argue this approach could make it more difficult for small creators to compete.

Videos from big creators with lots of viewers will always appear at the best quality, while small creators who are not yet popular may have difficulty performing optimally.

The reason is, their videos are not supported by high quality in the Instagram application.

Responding to these concerns, Mosseri explained that this decision was applied in aggregate, not per individual.

This means that video quality doesn’t change based solely on the engagement of one user, but rather based on overall performance.

“We prefer to use encoding high quality for creators that generates more views.” Mosseri said. He also added that the system is not a direct limitation, but rather multilevel.

Mosseri argued that video quality is actually more important to creators than viewers. He said that a user’s decision to interact with a video is more determined by the content than by technical quality.