Tuesday 15 January 2013

Facebook + Instagram = A Pile of Steaming Shit.


With all of the negative publicity surrounding Instagram lately, you may be aware that in Mid December 2012, Instagram revealed a new Terms of Service (TOS) agreement for its users, which immediately proved to be a silver bullet.

A new clause was introduced that made it clear that the service was to have the ability to use your content in advertising, with no compensation to you, the copyright owner, whatsoever.

In addition, it was announced that advertisements would become a part of Instagram in an attempt to monetise the service. Well, that was hardly a surprise when Facebook purchased for $1 billion in a combination of cash and stock. They would need to do something to justify the purchase.

For users who didn't want to accept the new terms, they were courteously advised by @anonymous on Twitter that they could #boycottinstagram by downloading all of their images that had been uploaded to the service and deleting their account.

So, a significant amount of users did just that. The bailout was so impressive that Instagram did a complete back flip and reverted to the terms of service that they have had since 2010.

In reverting back to the previous TOS, Instagram want people to believe that everything is hunky dory. Instagram founder Kevin Systrom blogged that they have ‘listened’ to their users and have made appropriate changes to their policy to accommodate.

Well, yay for them. But you see, for me, it is all a matter of trust.

I simply don’t trust Instagram anymore. And I trust Facebook even less. We were stung hard by Facebook when they made changes to their algorithms mid last year (see our post regarding this). Facebook needs to learn that they can’t just dictate unreasonable policies to their users and expect to get away with it.

So, we have joined the ranks of the disgruntled, and have deleted our Instagram account. We are now on Streamzoo, so come and join us. But be aware, if they get bought out by Facebook – we are out of there!

5 comments:

  1. The service was to have the instaget ability to use your content in advertising, with no compensation to you, the copyright owner, whatsoever.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Muhammad,

    A service stops being a service when it ceases providing what you need / want. Goodbye Instagram and good riddance.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Post them on Facebook and share them on Twitter, buy instagram followers $5 but not a way to display on a blog. Snapwidget does.

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  4. Hi, This post is really good and despite those criticisms I think Marketing like this always remains in top.

    how to get instagram followers

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  5. I think otherwise. Imagine the possibilities it would provide if the these two giants merged.
    Instagram had done a lot for my business. Instagram helped me in promoting and improving the reputation of my business. I even plan on buying Instagram followers just to make sure that my business stabilizes it's visibility and popularity online.

    ReplyDelete

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