Instagram Introduces New Feature to Help Credit Black Creators

Instagram is trying to make it easier for Black creators to receive credit for their work with their new enhanced tag feature. 

Instagram says that proper creative credit and recognition is a starting point for discovery, new opportunities and economic empowerment.

“For many Black and underrepresented creators, crediting is an entryway to building a sustainable career as a creator, while combating cultural appropriation and ensuring the world knows who is driving culture,” a press release from Instagram said. 

Enhanced tags allow a creator’s profile category on their professional accounts to be displayed in their People Tag, so that people can share and view a creator’s specific contribution to a photo or video post.

Simply put—if you’re a makeup artist, songwriter, photographer or fashion stylist, your contributions will be more visible in the post.

The information appears when users tap on the post to see tags and in the expanded “In This Photo” screen.

The feature was created by two Black women — Alexis Michelle Adjei, a Meta data analyst, and Cameryn Boyd, a Meta engineer, who saw the need for  better crediting system on Instagram. 

“We want to ensure that as Black creators’ content is being distributed as it already is, they are getting the proper attribution so that they have the opportunity to get all of those growth and monetization and career-starting opportunities like their contemporaries are,” Boyd, a Spelman College graduate, told NBC News. “It’s really critical, as we’re moving towards this new age where creators are so important and creators are really able to use their craft to support themselves in their lives, that Black creators are getting the same opportunity, as they’re already creating the content.”

Adjei and Boyd said the goal of enhanced tags is to stop Black work from being uncredited, and for Black creators to go as viral as their content.

How to Use Enhanced Tags