Creator groups have slammed Instagram for revealing it reduces the quality of older, less viewed videos.

Some users of the Meta-owned social media platform voiced concern after its chief Adam Mosseri said it prioritized higher quality for more viewed content.

"We bias to higher quality. for creators who drive more views," Mr Mosseri wrote in a post on Threads on Sunday.

One creator told the BBC that it was "disheartening" for creators who had shifted their energy into churning out content for Instagram over the traditional platforms.

"I think it's horribly damaging to the artist's work," said Siete Savone.

The 25-year-old creator said she loved using the platform and understood its need to change and evolve, but it should know the limit at which moves start "actually affecting the quality of someone's original artistic work".

"No one should have to worry about the quality of their content not being retained due to Instagram retaining an "engagement bias" in favor of creators with more visibility," she added.

Mr Mosseri said Instagram reduced the quality of videos that hadn't been watched for a long time - saying most views occurred soon after publication.

The platform would make a video better again if it gained popularity, he added.

Social media consultant Matt Navarra told the BBC that this move "seems to somewhat contradict Instagram's earlier messages or efforts to encourage new creators".

"How can creators gain traction if their content is penalised for not being popular," he said.

And he said it will perpetuate a cycle of more established creators to be rewarded with increased viewership compared to those who are just trying to build up their following.

"The playing field between small creators and big creators should be level," Ms Siete agreed.

Cost vs quality
Streaming videos cost is behind Instagram's decision.

Videos of higher resolutions or videos with lots of visual assets, including lots of edits, images, or clips, require more computing power to encode.
These will be bigger in size than videos in a smaller resolution, meaning they'll take up more space in servers.

And then there was one person who commented on Mosseri's post saying they understood the potential benefits of possibly bringing down the storage cost, but it did not outweigh the negatives.
"For creators' perspective, spending time on creating quality stuff for it to then just be downgraded sucks," they said.

In May, the company announced alterations to its content-recommendation system, particularly video, "to give all creators a more equal chance of breaking through".

Despite Mr Mosseri's claim, in defending the measure against users' worry about how it would affect smaller creators, that consumers will always prefer the content of a video over its quality, Mr Navarra agreed.

This he believes should first be focused on how they can make engaging content to cater for their audience rather than focusing on how it will degrade through Instagram.

Mr Mosseri on Sunday told users that Instagram doesn't selectively degrade or enhance the quality of individual videos, but does so "in aggregate" and "on a sliding scale" - adding that he thought the difference in quality "isn't huge".
"The goal is to show people the highest quality content that we can," he said in his initial video response.

The company's push to make video more central to the experience of using its app has sometimes conflicted with some users and creators who do not want that shift to happen.
It walked back in 2022 on plans to move farther away from its traditional photo or so-called "grid" post format toward a TikTok-like emphasis on short form video content after it was criticized by creators and celebrities, including Kylie Jenner.