The great Instagram debate
*This post was originally created for the BLOOM blog…
Instagram published an altered version of their terms and conditions yesterday, only to meet 1.5 million people responding with questions and opinions. But was it all really as negative as it seemed?
What happened?
What seems to have happened is that a lot of people either a) got it wrong, or b) have never read a social networks t’s & c’s before (or both) or c) just didn’t care. In the initial breaking news there was some proper scaremongering as some tweets starting suggesting that your photos of your children would be used as Facebook adverts. New tools started popping up to help users download all their images to their PC’s in a last ditch attempt to retain ownership.
How did it all go down?
1.5 million people mentioned Instagram’s news across their social channels yesterday – 1.4 coming from Twitter alone! Of those, more than 40% of responses were picked up as positive and just 20% negative… though we can’t account for the sarcastic tweets (which probably account for 1.3 million of the tweets).
Less than 1% of tweets featured were classed as influential. 55% of opinions shared were classed as ‘low influence’.
Some celebrities started getting involved too! Check out some of Twitter’s most influential users sharing their opinions…
https://twitter.com/JonahHill/status/281186470813896705
Are Instagram *really*going to sell my photos?
Instagram released a blog post last night, in an aim to clear the whole thing up. They stated the following:
“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.”
So, do I own my photos or do they?
“Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos.”
Will I start to see advertisements in my feed?
It’s starting to look like a yes, again, the official word from the Instagram world is:
“Advertising is one of many ways that Instagram can become a self-sustaining business, but not the only one. Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram.”
Sum it up…
This time yesterday we were all definitely feeling as if Instagram had fudged things up majorly, but looking at the data today we can see that this was a little bit of a misconception. Mass media seemed to have picked tone up, but not represented the majority of people’s feelings.
But the real question is, could this have been avoided? If Instagram had a more immediate response – would tweets have not spiralled to 1.4 million?
864,000 Instagram uploads occurred every day 2011 and now in 2012 we’re seeing 5,000,000 images uploaded on a daily basis. 2013 may well be Instagram’s make or break year.
And if you still want an alternative…
Here are some of the best Instagram alternatives out there: