Instagram is once again risking a backlash from users as parent company Meta looks to stabilize its revenues. The social media site is adding two more ad slots to users’ feeds, letting companies run ads on the Explore home page and in profile feeds. The announcement comes just months after Instagram users loudly protested the app’s increase in the amount of A.I.-recommended content. At present, about 15% of the content in a person’s Facebook or Instagram feed is recommended by the company’s A.I. That’s reflected in posts from people, groups, or accounts users don’t follow. By the end of next year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, those numbers will double. Meta is also making changes to its TikTok competitor (Reels), inserting “post-loop” ads that will air after the user’s video. While short (four to 10 seconds) and often skippable, this could make the reels less desirable to users, who often watch TikToks more than once. The ads in Instagram’s Explore home screen will appear on the well-known grid people land on when they use that tool. That’s different than the previous system, where ads would only appear in the Explore feed that people would see after they tapped on a…
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