“Make Instagram Instagram again” reads the now-viral post that photographer Tati Bruening — better known as @illumitati on Instagram — shared on her feed along with a petition on Change.org. In just five days, the post has garnered over two million likes and the petition is close to achieving its goal of 5 lakh signatures.

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A post shared by ▵✖️tati (@illumitati)

So, what exactly is happening to Instagram?

For quite some time now, Instagram has been changing its algorithm to push more Reels instead of photos or videos, and it has reached a point where the changes are not even subtle.

Instagram had announced earlier that it was testing a way to turn all video posts into Reels and allowing public videos and photos to be used for making Reels. The objective seems very clear. While the company says that it will still have static posts, how much weightage is it willing to give these posts? Especially when photos are what most brands, creators and meme pages use to reach and engage with their audience.

Also Read: Instagram will soon let you turn public photos into Reels

In June 2021, Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, posted a video on the platform saying that Instagram is “no longer a photo sharing app” and that Instagram’s future was headed towards TikTok and YouTube (which serve entirely different purposes) with more of mobile-first video content. Hence began Instagram’s journey towards becoming a platform for entertainment, from an app that connected people through photos, that too in chronological order.

Changes are coming to video on Instagram