(2019-08-31) Instagram Wants Memers To Like It Again

Instagram Wants Memers to Like It Again

For nearly three years, 15-year-old Rowan Winch has been building a modern media empire out of his bedroom

In order to support his burgeoning company, Winch has applied for an LLC, hired a designer to create custom branding and illustrations for his account avatars, and has spent money through Instagram’s official ad network to promote his pages.

But a week and a half ago, Winch's largest account, @Zuccccccccccc, which had more than 1.2 million followers, was disabled overnight. On July 26, Instagram wiped more than 142 memers’ accounts, with no explanation or recourse, as part of a purge.

July’s mass deactivation was just the most recent flare-up between Instagram and the unruly, lucrative meme community it created. Last Christmas, Instagram conducted a similar mass deletion

For the first time, Instagram seems to be listening.

The role is in part an attempt to placate one of the platform’s most vibrant communities: According to a statistic provided by Instagram, meme content gets shared seven times more than non-meme content on the app.

More meme accounts than ever are monetizing, and memes have become the default way many young people consume news information on the platform.

BuzzFeed’s @World posts breaking news headlines in a memelike format to more than 783,000 followers, and publishers such as @Bustle have gone from posting curated lifestyle content to filling their feeds with screenshotted tweets.

“We’ve never gone out to this community and given best practices,” says Charles Porch, Instagram’s head of global creative partnerships. For example, many Instagram meme accounts post images and videos without credit—technically a violation of one of Instagram’s core community guidelines, which says that users should “share only photos and videos that you’ve taken or have the right to share.”

King and Porch both told me that they recognize that expectations around credit are changing, and King emphasized that she sees “inherent value in curation in addition to creation.”