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It’s amazing how the internetz can turn love into hate. One would think that Instagram, one of the most loved apps out right now, could do no wrong. However, a few changes to their terms and policies and everyone is flipping the eff out. A few hours ago on the Instagram blog, Kevin Systrom addressed the angry mob with a few key points that I thought were interesting:
About Advertising on Instagram:
“To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear. To provide context, we envision a future where both users and brands alike may promote their photos & accounts to increase engagement and to build a more meaningful following.”
In other words, Instagram has always been free and they would like to be profitable. To do so, they’re probably going to charge a variety of generic brands to have photos pop up on the popular page. That means your comments and likes on those generic brand photos will be shown to whole world and will therefore be associated with the “advertising” Instagram is trying to create. Actually, if you want to thank Instagram for being free for so long, you should like and comment on those branded photos as much as possible. The more you like and share branded photos, the more brands will think they’re actually doing something, and they’ll continue to pay Instagram more and more and so on and so forth.
On ownership rights:
“Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period.”
In other words, nothing has changed.
On Privacy:
“Nothing has changed about the control you have over who can see your photos. If you set your photos to private, Instagram only shares your photos with the people you’ve approved to follow you.”
In other words, nothing has changed.
In Summary:
Instagram has no reason to piss anybody off, they’re a billion dollar company that hasn’t made a dollar in profit from the actual service they provide. They probably made a few mistakes in how they communicated their news, and some of the terminology they used, but I can almost promise you that they aren’t evil…yet. In my opinion, Instagram users should support their dream of profitability, instead of getting pissed about something they never paid for in the first place.
Typical backtracking. They thought they could sneak in some legalize to be able to sell your photos, there was outrage, they are back tracking. This is how these social sites operate… they start out with these free and open terms (do everything and anything with our services!) and change them once they become popular. They knew from the beginning they would have to change the terms at some point (to be able to make money). If they had started off with the terms to sell people’s photos they still would have been popular, b/c filters are kewl and make everyone’s crappy photos look good (or something).
Hello anonymous commenter, Stu here. I don’t know if you’re getting it. They aren’t backtracking, they’re trying to make money. And, as users of their free service (if you are one) we should support their ingenuity, as long as it doesn’t screw us – and they’re not screwing us. Capitalism can be kewl, bro.