In today’s day and age of social media, simply tagging someone in a post could potentially change the course of their careers. With viral sensations and challenges ruling over our timelines, it’s also become a trend for Black creators to not receive proper recognition as the originators for the majority of what blows up online. Meta’s Alexis Michelle Adjei, Cameryn Boyd, and Alexandra Zaoui made the active choice to step in and help the underrepresented group get their due credit.

“I feel like it was every day on these different platforms overall — on Instagram, of course — of seeing dances, designs, and songs, and [Black creators] would make these amazing viral trends,” Adjei shared with AfroTech. “It was beautiful to see everybody do their own takes on it, but when you went back to look at the originator they were often Black and brown folk who were really being the trendsetters. And they were getting lost in the story. When it would come to what would be displayed or what would be ‘most popular,’ it wasn’t the originators. So, that was our original inspiration of making sure that the people who were driving culture forward were also the people getting their proper roses and the accolades that they deserve.”

Through their shared passion for supporting creatives, the trio brainstormed together and created the idea of an Instagram tool that would include enhanced tags to make the tech giant more equitable for Black creators. In February 2021, Adjei, Boyd, and Zaoui took their project to compete in Meta’s Black Futures Hackathon.

Their fervor for crediting led them to win the Hackathon, which also led to working tirelessly to bring the idea and product to life. For a year, the small team put in the grind, received support from fellow Meta employees, and created a workstream to get the feature rolled out, which is now available to the public.

Instagram Tool

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