Instagram chief Adam Mosseri continues his effort to disenchant the masses by debunking another widespread Instagram myth as part of his new series of informational posts inside the app.

In this latest post, Mosseri tackles the rumor that Instagram somehow deliberately downranks posts tagged as sponsored content in order to force brands to pay for reach.

Here's Mosseri:

We do not downrank any posts that you mark as sponsored. It helps us understand Instagram to know what is sponsored but, importantly, for creators to mark things as sponsored without fear of being downranked so that they can comply with local laws all around the world.

Common theory is that IG benefits from down-ranking those posts as yet another avenue to ensure brands and their partners pay for additional reach.

While as some have noted, it could also simply be that users of IG just engage with sponsored content less in general, and as soon as they see that "Sponsored" tag on a post, some just scroll on by, reducing engagement, thus reach.

So, the reach "penalty" in this instance is probably a spin-off of the tag itself, rather than something instigated by Instagram. Also, as Mosseri explains here, there has been no effort from the platform's end to cut the reach of these posts algorithmically or otherwise, considering these tags.

This is part of a new series of video posts from Mosseri and will aim to give a bit more context to a lot of the questions which users have about the app.

Last month, Mosseri also explained that including your brand log on a Reel won't see it penalized, but Reels with TikTok and YouTube watermarks will cop a reach penalty.

But getting the facts straight from Instagram to strip away some of those myths is worth it, even if many will hear Mosseri's descriptions and assume the worst either way. And really, they can't be blamed, since Meta's reputation for screwing over business users in the past has been pretty well well-established, and those who have been burned are unlikely to ever give it the benefit of the doubt.

But for all of the rest, you have this direct from the IG chief, with the exception of noting that it does not penalize posts with "Sponsored" tags:.