If you have ever spent hours creating something genuinely original only to watch a repost account with half the effort get twice the reach, this one is for you. The frustration has been real, it has been loud, and Instagram has finally done something meaningful about it.
Instagram has finally upgraded the algorithm to benefit original creators. The update is an expansion of the system Instagram implemented for Reels in 2024, which has already driven significant reach benefits for creators. In the second half of 2025, Meta reported that both views and time spent watching original Reels approximately doubled year over year.
The core of the upgrade is straightforward — Instagram now actively rewards accounts that create original content and penalizes those that simply aggregate and repost the work of others. The platform now labels reposted content and penalizes accounts that repeatedly post others’ content without transformation.
What Happens to Accounts That Keep Reposting
The consequences for repost-heavy accounts are significant and immediate. Accounts posting ten or more reposts within thirty days are excluded from recommendations entirely — meaning their content will not appear on Explore, in the Reels feed for non-followers, or in suggested posts. Aggregator accounts saw sixty to eighty percent reach drops after this change, while original creators saw forty to sixty percent reach increases.
Why Instagram Upgrades Its Algorithm to Benefit Original Creators Now
This did not happen by accident or generosity alone. There is a clear business case behind this decision. When users scroll through a feed full of recycled content they have already seen elsewhere, they spend less time on the platform, engage less deeply, and return less often.
Meta published performance figures demonstrating that both views and time spent watching original Reels on Facebook approximately doubled in the second half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024 — a significant engagement shift in a relatively short window suggesting that audiences prefer original content when the feed is cleaned up to show more of it.
