Tricked my Instagram algorithm by liking 50 cat videos in a row

Last Tuesday I got sick of seeing political rage bait in my feed. So I spent 10 minutes just furiously liking every cat photo I could find and muted like 5 rage bait accounts. Next morning my whole explore page was just cats and rescues. Works way better than reporting stuff.

3 comments

3 Comments

michaeld484d ago

You basically hacked the system through aggressive cat liking. Crazy that works better than hitting the report button 50 times.

angela5874d ago

Well now, that's a clever trick and I'm glad it worked out for you. But I have to gently push back on what michaeld48 said about hacking the system. You didn't really hack anything, you just showed the algorithm what you wanted to see by giving it clear signals. It's more like training a dog than breaking into a computer. The reason it works better than reporting is because the algorithm is built to follow positive engagement, not complaints. That said, I'd be careful about doing it too aggressively because the platform could start showing you even more extreme cat content if it thinks you're obsessed.

the_anthony4d ago

Didn't someone test this and find the algorithm just swaps one obsession for another?