The Know Daily - Wednesday 5 June 2024

_{Read in 5m 24s ∙ Listening to Maya Hawke ∙}

The Spanish city of Valencia has launched an ambitious new project to create the largest urban solar farm in the country - and it’s doing that by installing thousands of solar panels in the city’s cemeteries. The project has been dubbed “Requiem in Power”, and while most of the energy generated will be used to power municipal buildings, 25% will go to 1,000 vulnerable households 👏

📲 Unskippable ads

Instagram has begun testing adverts that users cannot swipe past.

Tell me more.
While ads have appeared on Instagram for a while now, users were always able to scroll past them - but this is no longer the case, as the Meta-owned platform has begun trialling a feature called “ad break”:

In a statement, Meta said it’s “always testing formats that can drive value for advertisers” - but the change has not gone down well with users, with many taking to X to complain. According to the BBC, it’s not entirely clear whether making users watch more ads actually helps companies’ profits, with a study carried out by TikTok suggesting it may lead to less engagement.

What’s the bigger picture?
Instagram’s move shows “the latest trend in late-stage tech media”, said Gizmodo: “driving more value for advertisers”. As massive companies like Meta can’t grow their user bases any further, they’ve instead turned their attention to making a profit from each user - and the same thing is happening with streaming companies. 

Just yesterday, Netflix discontinued its Basic tier, automatically moving UK users to its cheaper “Standard with Ads” package. And earlier this year, Amazon’s Prime Video began showing ads to paying subscribers, asking for an extra £2.99 a month to watch ad-free.

What else is going on at Instagram?
By showing unskippable ads, Instagram is becoming more like YouTube, which has long done the same. And according to TechCrunch, it makes sense that Instagram would consider going this route, “given it has also shifted over the years to become more of a video-sharing network”.

Instagram is certainly going through a bigger shakeup, as earlier this year it began limiting by default the amount of political content users see in their feed - although as we reported on previously, it’s not entirely clear what counts as ‘political content’. 

As a result of Instagram’s changes, a number of you told us that our Instagram posts aren’t appearing in your feed as often as before. Follow these steps to change that.