Authenticity and trust are the great challenges that Instagram faces in 2026, as indicated by its head, Adam Mosseri, through its social profiles. As part of his usual predictions for the turn of the year, the manager has reflected on the challenges that social networks face and the changes they will have to make to address them.
He did it on January 1 with a text headed by the phrase “Authenticity after abundance“and in which, among other things, it analyzes the impact of artificial intelligence not only on the content, but also on the way in which users and creators conceive social networks and digital platforms. In this sense, it considers that the traditional idea that has been had of this type of spaces, where people went to share personal content, has disappeared.
Mosseri assures that the feeds have been filled with synthetic content that is difficult to distinguish from real
“Authenticity is becoming infinitely reproducible“Mosseri expresses in his text. The CEO of Instagram assures that, as a consequence of the democratization of AI, feeds have been filled with synthetic content, with increasingly better deepfakes and photos and videos indistinguishable from reality. In addition, he points out that what made creators stand out at the time, such as their ability to be authentic and connect, is now accessible to anyone with the right tools.
Adam Mosseri argues that authenticity is rapidly becoming a scarce resource as a result of the abundance of content generated by artificial intelligence, the so-called “slop”. Thus, in a context in which technology will allow increasingly realistic synthetic content, demand for content created by human creators will grow.
“The creators who succeed will be those who figure out how to maintain their authenticity, whether or not they adopt new technologies. Now it’s harder, not easier, because everyone can fake authenticity“Mosseri explains in his text.”The bar will be raised from “can you create?” to “can you create something that only you could create?” That’s the new door“.
In relation to this, the CEO of Instagram predicts that over the next few years there will be a commitment to a more raw aesthetic as users look for content that feels real. In this sense, we will witness images and videos that are poorly produced and unflattering in themselves, which will contrast with the current search for aspirational, professional and polished content.
“In a world where everything can be perfected, imperfection becomes a sign. Rawness is no longer just an aesthetic preference: it is a test. It’s defensive. A way of saying: this is real because it is imperfect“says Mosseri in his publication, in which he assures that”flattering images are cheap to produce and boring to consume”.
However, Mosseri warns that artificial intelligence tools will continue to be perfected and will even be able to imitate this imperfect aesthetic. Therefore, distrust and skepticism will mark the way in which users approach content and it will be necessary, according to the CEO of Instagram, to develop a mentality that evolves from “what is said” to “who says it.”
“We will go from assuming that what we see is real by default to being skeptical when viewing multimedia content and paying much more attention to who shares something and why. This will be incredibly uncomfortable for everyone, because we are genetically predisposed to believe what we see”he explains.
It should be remembered that Meta, owner of Instagram and Facebook, has introduced artificial intelligence tools into its ecosystem, such as AI studio for the creation of chatbots, and has experimented with artificial influencers.
Mosseri admits that social media companies will come under greater scrutiny and pressure when developing mechanisms and policies to identify and label content generated by artificial intelligence. Thus, he is in favor of, given the abundance of this type of content, identifying that generated by real means. He proposes, for example, that camera manufacturers “Cryptographically sign images when capturing them, creating a chain of custody”.
The manager defends that more context will be necessary about the accounts behind the contents
It recognizes that this is only part of the solution and that, as an industry, social networks will need to take a step further and take more responsibility in revealing the context of posts, thereby referring to information related to the accounts that share the content. The goal, he says, is for people to be able to make informed decisions about what to believe.
When it comes to Instagram, Mosseri notes that the platform will have to evolve in different ways to stay relevant in the era of abundance and infinite doubt. Among the points to be addressed are the development of better creative tools, both driven by AI and traditional; labeling of synthetic content; collaborating with hardware manufacturers to verify the authenticity of materials; or improve positioning based on originality.
