Instagram has introduced a new feature that allows users to share their location in real time, but it has quickly been described as a “ghost town.” According to the company Meta, about 170 million users have gained access to the new “Instagram Map” feature. The idea is that friends can see where each other are, if they choose to share this information. But in practice, users are reporting emptiness, confusion and privacy concerns. A BBC reporter recounts that after activating the feature, he saw only one person on the map out of his hundreds of followers, an old friend in Los Angeles. “For a moment I felt a sense of vulnerability, while a dot with my face stood precisely above my apartment in New York,” he writes.
Many users have expressed fears that the feature is too intimate for a platform like Instagram, which has historically been more of a tool for public exposure than private sharing. “Instagram is not an intimate app where you would want people to know your location,” Hannah Law, an engineer from Utah, told the BBC.
Meta explained that the map is disabled by default and users must choose whether to use it. A spokesperson also stressed that only mutual followers can see the location, unless the user further restricts the list. However, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has faced criticism on the Threads network, after many people complained that the app was collecting data without permission. He denied this, saying that location is only shared if the user chooses to do so. Privacy experts warn that movement information is among the most sensitive: it reveals where you live, where you work, who you accompany, and even your political beliefs or sexual orientation.
“This is one of the most dangerous pieces of data to share,” Lorrie Cranor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, told the BBC.
On the other hand, organizations like Common Sense Media have warned of the effects on teenagers: feelings of social pressure, anxiety about “fear of missing out” and more chances of exclusion from groups. Ironically, even those who initially tried the feature out of curiosity have quickly turned it off. “I just turned it off,” said one user who was surprised to realize that the map was showing his house. For now, it seems that Instagram Map is more of an abandoned social experiment than a new way to bring people closer. As the BBC writes, the big question remains: what is Instagram in 2025, a place to share life, or a tool of digital surveillance?
