New Delhi: Facebook has started integrating Reels, Instagram’s short video feature, with its main social media network app in India, its largest user base. The integration is currently in testing phase and is only available to a limited number of public figures at present.
India is the first country where the integration is being tested.
“Facebook today announced that it is testing the ability for Instagram creators to have their public Reels recommended on Facebook in India. In this test, when someone on Instagram with a public account shares their Reel, they’ll see an option to have their Reel recommended to people on Facebook,” the social media company said in a statement Tuesday.
The move comes at a time when the US government and its 46 states, besides the territory of Guam and Columbia district, have sued Facebook for “illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly”, and are seeking to break up the company by undoing its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
According to experts, the integration of features from Instagram could help Facebook circumvent any negative impact should it face a scenario when it’s actually broken up.
Facebook, meanwhile, said the new feature is being tested only for a limited set of users in India.
“We’re only testing in India right now,” a Facebook spokesperson told ThePrint.
“To further enhance the video experience for our users, we are now testing the ability for a limited set of Instagram creators in the country to choose to have their Reels recommended on Facebook and also launching the ability for people to create and watch Reels on Facebook,” the company said in its statement.
Pastry chef Pooja Dhingra, Masterchef Pankaj Bhadouria, dancer-choreographer Awez Darbar, YouTubers Ashish Chanchlani and Bong Guy and public figures such as Suresh Raina, Sanjeev Kapoor, and Harbhajan Singh are some of the Instagram creators whose Reels will be recommended on Facebook.
Facebook-owned Instagram introduced its TikTok-like short video feature ‘Reels’ in India on 8 July last year, shortly after India banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has laid off over 1,000 of its India team this year with the government showing no sign of revoking the ban.
Several short video sharing apps became popular among Indian internet users after the ban as TikTok competitors rushed to capture some of its erstwhile 200 million users in India.
One of them was Instagram Reels, which digital economy experts said was one of the top contenders to benefit from the TikTok ban.
Why Facebook faces a break-up threat
Facebook is integrating features from Instagram into its main app at a time the US’ Federal Trade Commission, and 48 attorney generals across 46 US states, the territory of Guam, and the Columbia district pursue antitrust allegations seeking to overturn Facebook’s acquisitions of apps like Instagram and WhatsApp — essentially breaking up Facebook as it exists now.
“The integration of features from Instagram into Facebook is a possible strategy to circumvent any negative impact in a scenario where Facebook is actually broken up,” said cyber law expert Pavan Duggal.
He explained: “It’s a method of pre-empting any potential damage to the company should US regulators segregate Facebook company to smaller units, and it would make no difference to the core Facebook company should such a break-up happen, since the core company has retained much of what it sees as valuable from its other companies and platforms such as Instagram.”
In its statement, Facebook said creators looking to share a Reel on Instagram will now also see a prompt to have the Reel recommended on Facebook. The creator must tap “allow” to opt-in, after which the Reel will be shown as recommended content to any user on Facebook based on relevant interests. Facebook said Reel is shown with the creator’s Instagram username and not Facebook account, if they have one.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mazumdar)
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After the breaking up of Americal Telephones & Telegraphs in the mid 1980s into five separate companies, US Anti-Trust laws have not undertake any such major surgery. FACEBOOK is one of the best candidates and has been stealing user data recklessly and has not paid the penalty for it. I hope that Anti-Trust laws will be applied to FB. If that is done, in India too FB can be forced to bifurcate or trifurcate itself.