Internet giant Meta has recently made a number of changes to its Facebook and Instagram platforms that make them look more like Tiktok.

He is reacting to the growing threat from the smartphone app belonging to the Chinese Bytedance conglomerate, which is best known for short videos.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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The innovations have recently caused massive criticism, especially among Instagram users.

And now Meta is forced to turn around on Instagram.

Some of the changes will be rolled back, at least temporarily.

Adam Mosseri, who is responsible for Instagram in the group, told the online publication "Platformer": "We have to take a big step back, reposition ourselves and find out how we want to continue." This is all the more surprising because co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning the restructuring of Facebook and Instagram had defended in the middle of the week when presenting quarterly figures.

Features heavily based on Tiktok

Zuckerberg previously admitted that Tiktok's competition is troubling his company.

Meta has responded with new features that are heavily reminiscent of Tiktok.

For example, a short video format called "Reels", which is now available on both the parent service Facebook and Instagram.

This Reels feature also seems to be well received.

As Zuckerberg recently said, Facebook and Instagram users spent 30 percent more time on it in the second quarter than in the first three months of the year.

Two other changes are more controversial: Instagram was recently changed as a test so that photos and videos, like Tiktok, take up the entire mobile phone screen.

In addition, users on both Facebook and Instagram are increasingly shown content that does not come from their friends or from accounts they follow, but that the algorithm selects based on their presumed interests.

This type of algorithmic content selection is a key feature of Tiktok.

Resistance mounted against what was new on Instagram, and this week some of the most influential users joined in the criticism.

Reality star Kylie Jenner and her half-sister Kim Kardashian shared a post titled "Make Instagram Instagram Again."

It read: "Stop trying to be like Tiktok.

I just want to see nice photos of my friends.”

Jenner's words carry weight in the scene, she has the third-highest number of followers on Instagram, and a few years ago she caused an uproar when she criticized a new design for the social network Snapchat, causing the share price of its parent company Snap to fall significantly.

Shortly after Jenner's attack, Instagram boss Mosseri released a video in which he admitted the changes weren't ready yet, but basically defended the strategy.

And on Wednesday, Meta boss Zuckerberg was still unimpressed by the criticism.

He said the percentage of content that users see from other accounts should more than double by the end of next year.

On Facebook that is already 15 percent and on Instagram a little more.

“Explore Other Options”

But now the company is rowing back.

Testing full-screen content is halted on Instagram to "explore other options" and the number of third-party content recommendations is said to be "temporarily" reduced.

Mosseri admitted to Platformer that the content recommended by Instagram's algorithm so far hasn't hit users' tastes well enough.

The company now wants to work on that before increasing their share of content again.