Instagram is rolling out a new set of standards for account verification. With the new criteria in place, Instagram will no longer prioritize accounts with a high follower count during the verification process.
The checkmark next to an Instagram username signals that the account is verified. This verification seal lets you know that the account is run by a legitimate public figure.
Not everyone can get verified on Instagram. The process of how to get verified on Instagram has never been easy, as it requires your account to fit certain criteria.
But now, Instagram’s update to the verification process makes it more inclusive. In an About Facebook blog post, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, announced the platform’s effort to make account verification more transparent.
Mosseri noted that a high follower count was never part of the official criteria for verification, however, it still gave popular users an advantage. According to Mosseri, Instagram had “certain systems in place that prioritized accounts with high followings to help get through the tens of thousands of requests received every day.”
Instagram will no longer take follower counts into consideration during the automated part of the verification process. This prevents smaller accounts from getting filtered out of the huge pool of applicants.
In addition to loosening standards on follower count, Instagram is also changing the way it measures account notability during the verification process
Since the platform uses press articles to check a person’s notability, it aims to “include more Black, LGBTQ+, and Latinx” media outlets from now on. Instagram hopes this will also help make account verification more inclusive.
Now that Instagram is paying attention to accounts with fewer followers, more people finally have a shot at getting verified. Better yet, notable users will no longer have to worry about needing to get more followers to increase their chances of getting verified.