Instagram apologises after glitch pushes Creed's Higher to Stories users
Instagram has apologised after repeatedly urging users to add Creed's "Higher" to their Stories and posts. Users reported in recent days that the 1999 track kept appearing as the automatic suggestion, whatever they were posting.
An Instagram spokesperson said the company looked into the reports and found "Higher" was "being recommended to more people than intended," as reported by Rolling Stone. The company described it as a glitch in its recommendation system, according to Consequence, and said it was continuing to investigate why the error happened.
Communications specialist Pamela Ross told CNN that every Story she posted suggested the Creed song. Other users took to X to ask why the same suggestion kept appearing on their screens. Instagram lets people add music to Stories, short photos or videos, and grid posts, with songs suggested automatically.
Those suggestions draw on several signals. They include algorithmic recommendations, what is popular on the platform, songs a person has used before and the visual content of the image being posted. In this case, the balance tipped too far toward one track. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em's "Turn My Swag On" was also appearing more often than usual.
That second surge is not a fault, the spokesperson said. The Soulja Boy track "is not a bug, and it is actually popular on IG."
"Higher" was released in 1999 on Creed's album Human Clay. It peaked at Number Seven on the Billboard Hot 100, the US singles chart, the following summer. Creed broke up in 2004, then reunited for 2009's Full Circle, which remains its most recent album. The band disbanded again in 2012 before reuniting in 2023, and has played headlining tours from 2024 to the present.
The group is listed for shows on 11 and 12 December 2026 at Fontainebleau in Las Vegas and on 14 December 2026 at Yaamava Theater in Highland, California, according to tour details cited by Rolling Stone.
What makes this stand out is the scale. One recommendation error put a 27-year-old single back in front of millions of people at the posting screen at once. Instagram has not said how many users were affected or how long the fix will take.
