Affleck urged voters to « help make history » in a MoveOn.org campaign, and made several appearances during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. In the week of the presidential election, he appeared on Saturday Night Live to jokingly endorse Senator John McCain. Affleck did not actively campaign for Obama’s reelection in 2012, though he still supported him. During the Democratic National Convention in Boston, he spoke to many delegations, appeared on political discussion shows, and attended fundraising events. Affleck took part in a voter registration public service announcement, and traveled with Kerry during the opening weekend of his Believe in America Tour, making speeches at rallies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.
2015: Emergence as a director
Citing misinterpretations about its intention to « communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram », Systrom also stated that it was « our mistake that this language is confusing » and that « it is not our intention to sell your photos ». Furthermore, he wrote that they would work on « updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear ». In 2017, researchers from Harvard University and University of Vermont demonstrated a machine learning tool that successfully outperformed general practitioners’ diagnostic success rate for depression. The tool used color analysis, metadata components, and face detection of users’ feeds.
The feature allows users to verify their accounts to confirm their authenticity.Instagram began allowing users to request verification for their accounts in August 2018. This marked a significant shift from the previous system where verification was typically initiated by Instagram itself for accounts it deemed to be of public interest or high-profile. It helps users easily identify legitimate accounts amidst the vast number of profiles on the platform. Instagram verifies accounts based on its own discretion, and not all accounts meeting the criteria may be verified.
Similarly, an app for Windows 10 personal computers and tablets was released in October 2016. In May, Instagram updated its mobile website to allow users to upload photos, and to add a « lightweight » version of the Explore tab. Instagram has developed and released three stand-alone apps with specialized functionality.
Censorship and restricted content
Affleck appeared in CinemAbility (2013), a documentary film which explores Hollywood’s portrayals of people with disabilities. He directed and starred opposite Gillian Anderson in the kidnapping thriller Animals while he and Damon will star as police officers in the crime thriller The Rip. He stepped down as director, writer and, ultimately, as the star of The Batman, saying he « couldn’t crack it » and no longer felt « passionate » about the story.
Users are more likely to engage with images that depict fewer individuals compared to groups and they are also more likely to engage with content that has not been watermarked, as they view this content as less original and reliable compared to user-generated content. Recently Instagram has come up with an option for users to apply for a verified account badge; however, this does not guarantee every user who applies will get the verified blue tick. As of 2014update, Instagram’s users are divided equally, with 50% iPhone owners and 50% Android owners. While Instagram has a neutral gender-bias format, 68% of Instagram users are female and 32% are male. Instagram’s geographical use is shown to favor urban areas, as 17% of U.S. adults who live in urban areas use Instagram, while only 11% of adults in suburban and rural areas do so.
2005: Career downturn and tabloid notoriety
Then, the following month, Reels officially launched in 50 countries including the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Then in August of that year, Instagram introduced a reels button on the home page. They are distinguished from regular content by the « sponsored » tag under the account name. Despite the « TikTokification » of Reels and the parent company Meta spending millions on courting content creators, user engagement continued to lag way behind TikTok as of 2022. Then Instagram started rolling out a new feature with made Reels up to 90 seconds long beginning in June 2022.
- From June 2012 to June 2013, Instagram approximately doubled their number of users.
- Gezgin & Mihci 2020 found frequent Instagram usage correlated with smartphone addiction.
- Past research has found that media which show people’s faces receive more ‘likes’ and comments and that using filters that increase warmth, exposure, and contrast also boosts engagement.
- In 2007, he filmed a public service announcement for Divided We Fail, a nonpartisan AARP campaign seeking affordable, quality healthcare for all Americans.
2019: IGTV, removal of the like counter, management changes
- When Affleck starred as a recently returned Korean War veteran in the coming-of-age drama Going All the Way (1997), Todd McCarthy of Variety found him « excellent », while Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted that his « flair for comic self-doubt made a strong impression. »
- The same month, they also began testing the removal of ability to share feed posts to stories.
- People can’t buy things on Instagram, we are simply a place where people share photos and videos.
- In 2006, Affleck contributed to Cory Booker’s Newark mayoral campaign, to Eliot Spitzer’s New York gubernatorial campaign, and introduced Congressmen Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy at rallies in Connecticut.
If some of the accounts violate Instagram’s community guidelines, it will take action, which could include banning them. On March 11, 2022, Russia announced it would ban Instagram due to alleged « calls for violence against Russian troops » on the platform during the ongoing 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On March 14, the ban took effect, with almost 80 million users losing access to Instagram. Instagram along with Facebook are labelled as extremist by Russian government, making it illegal to use with VPN if the law was passed in 17 July 2025 to criminalise searching and accessing to extremist materials even with VPN, with a fines from 3000 to 5000 rubles (€30 to €50) by the 1 September 2025.
While Instagram may appear to be one of the most widely used sites for photo sharing, only 7% of daily photo uploads, among the top four photo-sharing platforms, come from Instagram. Instagram has been proven to attract the younger generation, with 90% of its 150 million users under the age of 35. From June 2012 to June 2013, Instagram approximately doubled their number of users. Internet users who make less than $30,000 per year use Instagram, while 14% of those making $30,000 to $50,000 and 12% of users who make more than $50,000 per year do so. With respect to the education demographic, respondents with some college education proved to be the most active on Instagram, with 23%.
In August 2020, Instagram began a pivot to video, introducing a new feature called « Reels ». After scrolling through posts from the past 48 hours, Instagram displays posts related to their interests from accounts they do not follow. In February 2021, Instagram began testing a new feature called Vertical Stories, said by some sources to be inspired by TikTok.
Body image
Meta representatives replied that they were disappointed with the lawsuit and were hoping instead to continue working with other companies from the industry to create new and better standards for applications teens use. A few days after a fire incident that happened in the Koryo Hotel in North Korea on June 11, 2015, authorities blocked Instagram to prevent photos of the incident from being spread. On January 2020, after the Assassination of Qasem Soleimani by the United States, Instagram removed posts expressing support for General Soleimani. Like many social media sites, Instagram employs a combination of automated algorithms, user reports and human review to identify and remove illegal content such as child abuse and encouragement of terrorism.
The app automatically begins playing videos as soon as it is launched, which CEO Kevin Systrom contrasted to video hosts where one must first locate a video. In April 2024, Instagram announced that they would start testing new tools « within weeks » to fight sextortion, a form of blackmail involving intimate pictures sent online. On August 2, 2024, Turkey blocked Instagram after the platform deleted posts from users offering condolences for the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In December 2024, Instagram and MTA collaborated and sold Metrocards ft. creators such as New York Nico, Overheard In New York, and SubwayTakes. In February 2023, Instagram introduced a new feature allowing users to browse and post GIFs in their comments.
This new functionality showcases unseen Story Highlights at the end of the Stories tray, which is situated at the top of the feed. By doing so, users can easily access curated Stories from the past week that they might not have seen previously. Importantly, this feature will only display Story Highlights—curated collections of Stories saved by users—rather than standard Stories that disappear after 24 hours. Users will only be able to view these Highlights after they have gone through all current Stories in their tray, meaning that those who follow many accounts may find it challenging to see these updates. Since February 2017, up to ten pictures or videos can be included in a single post, with the content appearing as a swipeable carousel. The feature originally limited photos to the square format, but received an update in August to enable portrait and landscape photos instead.
Videos143
Subsequent episodes in June and August 2024 featured Reneé Rapp, Rachel Sennott, Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla. In April 2016, Instagram released a Windows 10 Mobile app, after years of demand from Microsoft and the public to release an app for the platform. The platform previously had a beta version of Instagram, first released on November 21, 2013, for Windows Phone 8. The new app added support for videos (viewing and creating posts or stories, and viewing live streams), album posts and direct messages.
Following the change, after viewing a number of posts a pop-up requires the user to log in to continue viewing content. There was no option for users to opt out of the changed Terms of Service without deleting their accounts before the new policy went into effect on January 16, 2013. The move garnered severe criticism from users, prompting Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom to write a blog post one day later, announcing that they would « remove » the offending language from the policy.
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment chicken road Weekly described it as a « wholesome and quick-witted » performance. When Affleck starred as a recently returned Korean War veteran in the coming-of-age drama Going All the Way (1997), Todd McCarthy of Variety found him « excellent », while Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted that his « flair for comic self-doubt made a strong impression. » He and his brother, Casey, were surrounded by people who worked in the arts; the boys regularly attended theater performances with their mother and were encouraged to make their own home movies.
App support
In August 2019, Instagram also began to pilot the removal of the « Following » tab from the app, which had allowed users to view a feed of the likes and comments made by users they follow. The change was made official in October, with head of product Vishal Shah stating that the feature was underused and that some users were « surprised » when they realized their activity was being surfaced in this manner. Instagram later restricted the ability to view public profiles without logging in, prompting users to sign in after viewing a limited number of posts.