What Mosseri Doesn't Understand About Authenticity and How the World Is Changing

Trust isn't a technical problem. And authenticity isn't an aesthetic.

A few days ago, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, published a thread about the future of the platform. His central thesis: authenticity is becoming “infinitely reproducible.” As AI generates increasingly realistic content, he argues, creators will need to lean into rawness and imperfection as proof of being real. The polished aesthetic is dead. Camera companies are betting on the wrong look. The future belongs to blurry photos and shaky videos.

He’s sensing something real. But he’s diagnosing it completely wrong.

Rawness is already part of the prompt

As Rachel Karten pointed out in her response to Mosseri’s essay, the visual cues he’s demanding from creators are exactly the ones AI will replicate first. The “raw aesthetic” isn’t proof of anything anymore. It’s just another style that can be generated on command. AI influencers with millions of followers already look indistinguishable from real creators shooting on their phones. The GRWM-ification of AI is already here.

Mosseri is betting on the momentum, not the reaction.

But there’s a deeper problem with his argument. He frames authenticity as an aesthetic question. As a technical challenge. As something that can be solved by camera manufacturers cryptographically signing images or platforms labeling AI content.

Authenticity isn’t an aesthetic. And it isn’t a technical problem.

The real problem is what Instagram became

What Mosseri longs for—genuine connection, trust, realness—once existed on Instagram. And the platform itself destroyed it.

The problem is that people became numbers. Views. Viral metrics. Engagement rates.

The problem is that communication became automated messages, templated DMs, and engagement pods.

The problem is that the platform is ruled by trends instead of original thought. Not just in style, but in substance. Everyone says the same things in slightly different ways.

The problem is that it’s nearly impossible to build trust when the algorithm shuffles content so aggressively that the people who follow you don’t see your posts tomorrow.

The problem is that influencers earn absurd amounts for single posts, constantly push consumption, and have become completely disconnected from their audience’s reality.

The problem is that entertainment and retention became more important than everything else. To succeed, you need to create increasingly punchy, visually striking, and intellectually shallow content.

Mosseri blames camera manufacturers for making professional-looking tools. But Instagram’s own algorithm rewards exactly the kind of content he now criticizes. The platform optimized for watch time, not connection. For virality, not trust. For scale, not depth.

And now he’s surprised that authenticity feels scarce?

Hi, I’m Andi!

The world has changed, and Instagram hasn’t noticed

Mosseri is right that something has shifted. But it’s not just about AI-generated content flooding the feeds.

Look around. The world is heading in a bad direction. Wherever you live, it feels like everything is collapsing at once. Wars. Economic crises. Political violence. Terrorism. Growing poverty. Division. Environmental disasters. I can’t even list everything that’s making us anxious, overwhelmed, or simply exhausted.

In this world, what Instagram offers feels almost offensive. It’s completely disconnected from reality. From what people actually need right now.

People want to slow down. They want to connect. They want to go deeper, to understand, to breathe.

At the start of this year, posts about “2026 being the analog year” were everywhere. I don’t believe it’ll happen quite like that. But I do believe—and I’m walking this path myself—that more people are consciously turning back to the real world. To quiet walks. To books. To listening to music without documenting it. To handwriting. To meetings that never become posts.

What Instagram offers right now is the opposite of what people are craving.

Trust isn’t about technique

Mosseri is right that trust matters. He’s right that in a world of synthetic content, who says something will matter more than what is being said.

But trust has nothing to do with camera manufacturers.

AI can write good copy.
Cameras can shoot beautiful video.
And people can lie and project whatever they want in their content.

We’ve had enough of all of it.

What we need now are voices that can represent something without performing it.
People who show what they actually do and care about topics genuinely.
People who want to share, not grow.
People who reliably represent what they actually live. Not invented directions. Not constructed characters. Not projected lives.

Mosseri senses that trust is becoming valuable, but his solutions miss the point entirely. Labeling AI content won’t rebuild trust. Technical verification systems won't make people feel connected. Surfacing “credibility signals” won’t replace genuine human presence.

The uncomfortable truth

Mosseri feels that Instagram has become too polished. Everything moves, everything is edited, everything took hours to produce. That’s why creators are frustrated with low reach, and that’s why audiences are leaving.

But Instagram created this. The algorithm rewarded it. The platform incentivized it. And now the head of Instagram is telling creators to be more raw?

He also feels that somehow Instagram needs to bring back the old days… The genuine sharing, the real moments…

But again, he’s not talking about the real issue.

People don’t need a different aesthetic. They need to slow down and live their own lives. They need less content, not different content. They need connection that isn’t mediated by an algorithm designed to maximize engagement.

The problem with cinematic videos isn't the production quality. It's that masses of creators put all their focus on the editing, the music, the hook, while their actual message is shallow, clichéd, and disconnected from reality. It's like watching a movie. But movies aren't reality.

The point was never about execution. Not about what style you choose or what tools you use. The point is whether you actually wanted to say something or just wanted to satisfy the algorithm.

We’ve become slaves to social media. And now, suddenly, the platform wants to let go of our hand and tell us: just be yourself, be messy and raw. But that’s not what this has been about. It’s been about performance all along.

What actually matters in 2026

The creators who will matter this year aren’t the ones who master the raw aesthetic or the cinematic style. They’re the ones who have something to say and who can be trusted not because they look authentic, but because they are.

Not as creators who entertain well, but as humans who stand for something.

Mosseri is sensing a shift. He’s just looking in the wrong direction. The answer isn’t in the camera, the aesthetic, AI labels or verification systems.

The answer is in having something worth saying and being someone worth trusting.

That’s always been the answer. Instagram just made us forget it for a while.

Warmly,
Andi