Will Instagram recover from its public relations disaster?

by L.A. Times Posted 2012/12/19 15:00:00

Related Topics: instagram, Facebook, Privacy, Social Network, Ads, Listening, Advertisement

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	Yes	588 votes	34%
	No	1,122 votes	66%

Instagram has said it will remove language from its new terms of service that would have allowed users' photos to be part of advertisements that would run within the photo sharing social network.

Kevin Systrom, the social network's co-founder, said Instagram doesn't currently have plans to run such ads, so it will remove that language from the terms of service that kick in Jan. 16. "We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question," Systrom said in a blog.

Systrom said Instagram was listening to its users and would fix any mistakes on the social network's part. He said Instagram never intended to sell people's photos to others without compensating the photographers.

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Ɛ>NinjaGirl<3 2012/12/20 18:17:32

Yes

+3
I dont use Instagram anyway
>> See Replies

More polls by L.A. Times

Ramón 2012/12/25 17:16:24

No

Instagram belongs to Facebook. So, NO. FB will continue to shoot itself in the foot with every change they make. This started with their IPO.

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El Prez 2012/12/23 18:34:14

No

We can only hope not. What a lame outfit!

reply
Tre 2012/12/23 15:21:53

No

+1
They have probably lost people's trust now. How stupid were they to suggest they have the rights to publish an individuals photo without their permission.

reply
santosh umap 2012/12/23 06:16:42

No

no

reply
sglmom 2012/12/23 06:13:49

No

+1
Goodbye to bad rubbish ..
(now if only the msm would do the same -- go away!)

reply
Pookie 2012/12/23 01:36:54

No

+1
I haven't used Instagram once in my entire life.

So if i gave less of a damn,
the world would end. For real.

I been done with Facebook for a year and I'm damn glad.
It was a true waste of time and energy.
All it did was attract trouble and annoying people to see at your fingertips.

I declare Facebook dead in my eyes.

reply
MrSexyPants 2012/12/23 00:30:07

Yes

because there are/will be people like me who don't really care. and u can't just "kill" a social network, you hafta replace it with another one. take myspace for example. even with all the changes, everyone stuck around untill facebook came along. instagram could say "we own your souls" and unless another instagram-type site came along, the majority of people would still use it...

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dairyshark 2012/12/22 21:41:06

No

The public is fickle and you only get one shot at trust. Betrayed trust is the death of companies. Look at Schlitz. They violated the public' trust and lost their #1 ranking, never to recover. The same is probably true for Pinterest. Besides, they never said that it was not their intent to use the public's photos, they just said that they are not moving forward with this idea at this time. I will be posting nothing else.

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Personpeople 2012/12/22 19:41:24

Yes

To many careless and even stupid 13 year olds use it.

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Dave 007 2012/12/22 16:15:25

No

+1
Don't use it. Life is good.

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cranejumper 2012/12/22 11:23:10

No

Hey they screwed the pooch

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Royo 2012/12/21 21:38:24

No

It's slowly died off since the summer. I don't see it lasting too much longer.

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M 2012/12/21 15:47:15 (edited)
Kaimeso 2012/12/21 15:34:16

Yes

+1
Like Zukerman says, people are stupid. Instagram will just have to wait a bit before slipping a better worded TOS in to take ownership of everyones content.

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nicesteve 2012/12/21 09:27:45

Yes

The majority of big corporations, such as Instagram. usually do bounce back
from bad judgement. Let's hope that Instagram's hindsight is 20 / 20, and that
they learn their lesson, use better judgement, and are a lot less selfish and
greedy in the future. Their survival down the road might depend on that.

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Casey 2012/12/21 07:31:20

No

idk the point

reply
Manal 2012/12/21 00:50:44

No

Oh wow after we deleted our accounts!!!

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Rhi-ot. 2012/12/21 00:31:23

Yes

There are A LOT of young people using instagram who probably don't read or care about the terms of service.

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dairyshark to Rhi-ot. 2012/12/22 21:43:49

+1
And by their age, there should be language protecting their content above that of the TOS

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Kigan 2012/12/21 00:02:19

No

They shot their users' trust full of holes. If I remember correctly, Facebook owns them which means that trust should NEVER be regained because they will only take advantage again.

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kevinlim 2012/12/20 23:28:06
Cal 2012/12/20 23:03:48 (edited)

Yes

+1
Most likely. Facebook survived it's IPO crashing to the ground like a plane without wings. I'm sure instagram will be fine.

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Anonymouse BN-0 ~bibbityboo~ 2012/12/20 22:15:52

No

I don't use Instagram, but after that I never will.

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Abï 2012/12/20 21:10:29

No

forgiven but no forgotten, trust is easily lost and very hard to regain

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disclaimer 2012/12/20 21:03:03

Yes

Oh, come on. You seriously think a media giant can't recover from one mistake?

reply
dear•LT13☻ 2012/12/20 20:57:04

No

Blew it.

bye, bye to another lame social media fad... (as told from a SH user - what a hypocrite huh?)

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YOMOMMA 2012/12/20 20:49:12

No

How can they ever be trusted?

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Lee 2012/12/20 20:07:58

Yes

+1
People will keep using it. I don't, and never have because of this reason.

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Avi Rosen 2012/12/20 19:34:15

Yes

+1
But It has to stop its latest idea about advertisement.

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Jack 2012/12/20 18:53:59

Yes

+1
Eventually, people will give up their info for this "free" service.

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Ɛ>NinjaGirl<3 2012/12/20 18:17:32

Yes

+3
I dont use Instagram anyway

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Tiffany 2012/12/20 17:22:15

Yes

+2
I bet it will. Still, I've never used Instagram, and policy changes or not, you still won't find me using their service. Clearly they don't respect their users if they had even the thought of stealing individual artists' work.

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heeheemee 2012/12/20 16:59:23

Yes

+1
People have too short of an attention span, and are too much of attention whores to care.

reply
RyokuSonic 2012/12/20 16:54:08

No

+1

reply
JimAllenIII 2012/12/20 16:53:41

Yes

It will take time and eventually changing the language so it protects the users first. That's the way to the future.

reply
hazydave 2012/12/20 16:39:17

Yes

+1
Most users didn't really understand the issue, anyway. And those who really like Instagram will take this change in licensing terms as evidence they actually do listen to their users. It would be way more fun if they didn't recover, and thus a message was sent to the rest of the "cloud" companies working on similar business models. But in general, these things work out in favor of the companies, not the users. And there's plenty of Facebook money to hold them over until they bounce back.

reply
Sunrise.Ashes 2012/12/20 15:50:50

No

+1
I think not.

reply
cjwatson1972 2012/12/20 15:32:17

No

+3
Instagram has opened the door for a competing service to come in and eat their lunch. They made a bone-headed play that caused a lot of users to drop them. Even if they reverse themselves, the public trust has been broken. They'll survive, but they won't recover. They've already had their best day ever.

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This is W³ 2012/12/20 15:25:22

No

Since Facebook acquired it, it will go down the crapper just like Facebook is currently going.

reply
Angela Koshy 2012/12/20 15:19:55

No

+1
people might not trust it anymore after it

reply