There Will Be Less Garbage on Instagram Soon.
Instagram isn’t what it used to be. What started as a simple platform for sharing retro photos with friends and family has quickly transformed into a social media mega-app. Sure, you can still share photos, but the platform now offers virtually everything, from live streams to short videos. In fact, for some users, Instagram’s algorithm has turned their feeds into veritable meme-making machines, where low-quality videos, images, and carousels dominate their experience as they scroll through the app. If you use Instagram, you might have a similar experience—especially if you enjoy quirky, niche, or otherwise alternative internet humor.
Instagram warns about the dangers of slop.
This situation is likely to change in the near future. As TechCrunch reports , Instagram is tightening controls on “unoriginal” content—that is, posts from creators who didn’t create it themselves. This includes both individual photos and carousels. The idea is to promote Instagram users who post original content and restrict those who simply copy other people’s work and share it on their feeds. Much of the low-quality images and videos you see on Instagram (and other social media platforms) are stolen from other creators and reposted as if the creator has any rights to the content. Carousels are particularly egregious, as they allow a single user to post numerous different images from different creators.
This doesn’t mean that any user who reposts content they didn’t create will be penalized. If the creator has made significant changes to an image or video, it should be considered “original” content in Instagram’s terms. Otherwise, a lot of other content—memes, etc.—will be blocked from the platform. However, this doesn’t include “low-quality edits” like adding watermarks or changing the video speed. For content to be approved, the user must make more substantial changes. As Instagram explains, “An original meme transforms another creator’s photo or video… When meme creators add humor, social commentary, cultural references, or a relatable perspective using elements like unique writing, creative editing, and voiceover, they create something original. The best meme creators take third-party content and make it unmistakably their own, adding a perspective, joke, or context that wasn’t there before. This is the kind of creativity we want to continue to encourage.”
However, you probably won’t notice any change in AI performance.
As TechCrunch notes, Instagram has already applied these rules to Reels, so this isn’t the platform’s first attempt at such a policy. However, I’m surprised that so far, “low-quality AI-generated content” has received little attention. In fact, Meta appears to be entirely focused on AI-generated content, at least until the end of 2025. I suspect that as long as AI-generated content is “original,” Meta has no problem hosting it on its platforms, including Instagram. YouTube takes the opposite approach: while both platforms are plagued by low-quality AI-generated clips, YouTube is actually trying to combat the spread of such content .
On Instagram, you might notice a reduction in the number of repetitive, low-quality memes that can flood your feed, but you might still encounter the same number of bizarre AI-generated videos that spread like wildfire. Obvious AI-generated videos are certainly obvious, but as AI models evolve , new clips can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from reality . Be careful.