Hajra Naz
Instagram just made life harder for smaller creators.
If you’ve seen a pop-up telling you that you need at least 1,000 followers to go live, it’s real. Anyone under that line won’t be able to stream on IG Live anymore. Instead, your only option will be regular video calls, which won’t get you the same reach or chance to be discovered.
Meta hasn’t shared why they did it, so we’re left guessing. Live-streaming costs money to keep running, especially when streams draw just a handful of viewers. And there’s the issue of people making throwaway accounts to stream stuff that breaks the rules. Raising the follower bar makes that trickier.
There’s also the idea that if someone has at least 1,000 followers, they’ve probably put in real effort and built some trust. That might mean fewer low-quality or harmful streams and could help IG Live look more credible overall.
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Other platforms already have similar rules. TikTok also asks for 1,000 followers to go live. YouTube wants just 50 subscribers, though the dynamic there is a bit different. Both YouTube and Instagram also bumped up the age limit for live-streaming to 16 earlier this year.
All of these point to a trend: platforms want live-streaming to look safer and feel more professional. It’s a setback for new and smaller creators, but it seems the only way around it is to grow your following first before you can hit “Go Live.”
