Facebook-owned popular photo sharing app Instagram has probably been used by a lot of people at one point or another to get more people to follow them on their other social networks. But now, it looks like they’re cracking down on those users who do that, specifically if what you’re linking to is your Snapchat or Telegram profile, with a follow mechanism. Of course some are crying foul and unhappy with this development, but of course the company will want to protect its own interests.
Of course neither of the two mentioned services are direct competitors of Instagram per se, even though they do have photo sharing features as well. But that hasn’t stopped Facebook from blocking those follow me links that are found on the profiles of some users. According to a spokesperson from Instagram, they are indeed not allowing people to put “add me” links on their profiles at least because this is “not the way our platform was intended to be used.”
Telegram has already tweeted about it, saying that this is another case of Facebook’s “tentacles” closing in on the freedom of some users’ ability to link to them in their profile, even using the hashtag #hypocrisy. Some are upset because if you didn’t know it yet, the profile is the only place in Instagram where you can put on a clickable link, and so some use it to promote links to their blogs or sites, and as we’ve seen, to other social networks as well.
Another @Facebook tentacle closes on users' ability to share a link to their Telegram profile. #hypocrisy pic.twitter.com/xC6ydp3M0p
— Telegram Messenger (@telegram) March 2, 2016
Is this move fair? Probably most will answer not. But again, we use the service for free and they probably have the right to stop people from using it to promote other apps or services. What do you think?
VIA: Mashable
