Social & Influencers

Meta reveals earnings after a tough week for Instagram

Its revenue dropped for the first time ever in Q2.
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Keeping Up With The Kardashians/E! via Giphy

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It’s not exactly the best week to be Instagram. Since Saturday…

  • Influencers, meme-page creators, and their fans held a protest at IG’s New York HQ, arguing that the platform’s content-moderation system is “harmful and unjust.”
  • In a post on Instagram, the rally’s organizers asked for “transparency regarding community guidelines,” for all users to have “the same content-moderation system,”and more.
  • A few days later, both Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, who have a combined 686 million IG followers, re-shared a post that read, “MAKE INSTAGRAM INSTAGRAM AGAIN. (Stop trying to be TikTok I just want to see cute photos of my friends.)”

Le response: IG chief Adam Mosseri briefly responded to the backlash in a video this week (that basically sounded like this), noting that its full-screen feed is still just a test, and that while photos will remain part of Instagram and the app’s “heritage,” more of the app will become videos over time.

But we wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t seen any of the above posts until now, because the only thing Instagram shows you these days is a VERY loud Reel of a complete stranger air-frying a peach, of all things.

All of this before earnings yesterday: Which, spoiler alert, missed expectations—Meta’s revenue dropped for the first time ever in Q2, declining almost 1% year over year. Quarterly revenue was $28.8 billion, but Wall Street was expecting $28.9 billion. Apple’s privacy changes, the economy, and rival TikTok are all playing a role in its struggles.

Sound byte: “We seem to have entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business,” said Captain Obvious Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.—PB

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