Instagram will reduce the visibility of accounts featuring AI-generated people when those profiles fail to identify themselves as artificial, as the social network tries to make synthetic online personalities easier to recognise.

The Meta-owned platform is replacing its existing “AI creator” designation with a clearer “AI-generated profile” label for accounts built around people who do not exist in real life.

Instagram said it had received complaints from users who encountered apparently human profiles before later discovering that the people depicted were generated by artificial intelligence.

Under the new approach, Instagram will try to detect qualifying accounts that have not applied the label themselves.

Profiles identified as AI-generated but left unlabelled will have their reach restricted. Their posts will no longer be recommended to people who do not follow them through major discovery areas including Reels and Explore. Account owners who believe Instagram has made a mistake will be able to appeal.

The rules are specifically aimed at profiles presenting AI-generated personas as people. They do not require every user who employs AI to create or alter individual pieces of content to identify their entire account as AI-generated.

That distinction means the policy will not remove or necessarily reduce the wider volume of AI-generated images and videos appearing on Instagram. Instead, it addresses a narrower concern: accounts whose central identity is a synthetic person who may be mistaken for a real human.