Instagram Snatches Back Policy & Claims They Will Not Sell Pics

Today while checking my Twitter timeline on my break, I came across a blogger asking followers if they would delete their Instagram account. I didn’t know what she was referring to – so, I checked my timeline more, went online, and read from CNNmoney.com that Instagram users were livid with the announcement of changes to the company's policies. “Instagram says it won’t sell your photos to advertisers” by Julianne Pepitone and Stacy Cowley of CNNMoney.com reports Instagram would implement new changes in their policies starting January 16. The article states this as the controversial change:

“‘A business or other entity may pay’ Instagram to display users’ photos and other details ‘in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you’”

The announcement of the change was yesterday and many users took to their other social media accounts to voice very critical angry opinions about the change. Today, Instagram responded with a blog post. Here are some notable statements from the post:

“…we’re listening and to commit to you that we will be doing more to answer your questions, fix any mistakes, and eliminate the confusion”

“legal documents are easy to misinterpret”

“Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate 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”

The post goes on to illustrate the advertising vision of Instagram's future which as CNNMoney.com put it is “similar to an advertising product Facebook currently offers called ‘Sponsored Stories’, that incorporates users’ Facebook ‘like’ votes.”. The post then assures that Users still own their content and privacy is still the same. 

Instagram put out a broad legal statement that would give them a lot of room to experiment with user content in order to monetize the free service; it would also limit users’ rights if they have a conflict with their content being used without permission or compensation. However, Instagram forgot they are part of the social media industry meaning when hundreds or thousands of people get angry they can go to various social media outlets to let out such anger. Then, such anger gets retweeted, reblogged, liked, and favorited.

Users understand well that Instagram is a business and not all good things stay free. However, users don’t expect to have their content hijacked and sold. At least, the good thing is that Instagram snatched back their policy and will be rewording and updating to eliminate “misinterpretation”. Let’s hope other social media companies remember that they have created services and apps to allow the average person to broadcast their views on such controversial issues as a get rich quick policy that limits users’ rights.