From meme makers to the Kardashians, Instagram users have had much to say this week about feeds being cluttered with noise. As Meta chases TikTok's astronomical growth in short-form video, app chief Adam Mosseri has gone so far as to suggest that Instagram no longer needs photos. And of course, that users feel they're only seeing algorithmically recommended content from accounts they don't even follow.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the next day, Mosseri published a video on a wide range of user complaints, but the most followed women on Instagram, Kylie Jenner and her sister Kim Kardashian, shared a petition this week that said, "Stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends." Jenner once single-handedly sent the Snap stock down because she said she no longer opened Snapchat anymore, so it's probably not coincidental timing that the next day, Mosseri posted a video addressing widespread user complaints.

And if you thought the backlash that Instagram's changes provoked would finally make the company's executives shift course, you were mistaken. Mark Zuckerberg today spoke out to address the recent drama around algorithmic recommendations on Instagram on Meta's quarterly earnings call.

Social feeds are going from being driven primarily by the people and accounts you follow to increasingly also being driven by AI recommending content that you'll find interesting from across Facebook and Instagram, even if you don't follow those creators, he said.

Zuckerberg said that today, about 15% of content in our Facebook feeds are served by Meta's AI. That number is even a little bit higher on Instagram.

We expect these numbers to double by the end of next year, he said. That means that over 30% of our feeds on Instagram and Facebook will be filled up with content from accounts that we don't actually follow. Not surprising that those Kardashians want Instagram to stop trying to be TikTok.

Fortunately, if you simply want to look at photos your friends are posting, you do have some control over this: on Instagram, you can switch to a feed of only people you follow by tapping the Instagram logo in the top left of your screen then tapping "Following." Meanwhile, Facebook took a step this week toward divvying up the newsfeed into "Home," a TikTok-like feed of recommended content, and "Feeds," which shows you posts from your friends, groups, and accounts you follow. So, in theory at least, you do have the option to view your friends' content—but of course, that's frustrating for users when algorithmically served content is the default.

"I want to be clear that we are still ultimately a social company focused on helping people connect," he said. It's a bad sign in itself that the founder of Facebook felt the need to clarify that his company is a social one.

Why is Facebook and Instagram hell-bent on showing us Reels from strangers rather than our friends' brunch? Reels is a huge potential money maker for Meta during a time when its revenue is starting to decline. Zuckerberg revealed today that Meta has exceeded more than a $1 billion annual run rate on Reels ads. Plus, the time spent watching Reels is up 30% since last quarter-a sure attractor for advertisers-but maybe the reason for that uptick is we're getting served so many Reels by the algorithm.

So who cares about the average user as long as stakeholders are happy?