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    Insta-Backlash: Twitterverse Overreacts To Facebook’s Instagram Acquisition, Users Delete Accounts

    Sarah Perez

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    Sarah currently works as a writer for TechCrunch, after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to becoming a professional blogger, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. → Learn More

    Monday, April 9th, 2012
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    Not everyone is happy about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram this morning, it seems. In an apparent insta-backlash, a bunch of folks are tweeting about their intentions to delete their Instagram accounts now that Facebook has tainted their trendy social network with its massive data-grabbing paws.

    It’s a spectacle even worse than when Instagram launched on Android, prompting all those #teamiPhone tweets. Sigh.

    Some tech blogs are even posting tips and tools that help you get your data out of the service, too, like Instaport, for example. On Hacker News, a user dug up the Instagram page that lets you delete your account. Hooray. (Note: don’t click that link in haste unless you’re sure. All your photos will be gone, and you can’t re-register under the same username in the future.)

    Evident among the tweeters are the typical concerns that when a big company steps in, it means things will never be the same – that Facebook will shut down the service or that they’ll change it somehow – two things Facebook and Instagram have both assured users they aren’t planning on doing. Others are concerned with what an influx of the Facebook mainstream user base will mean for their hip (but not so little) community.

    Even more users seem to be concerned about Facebook’s privacy-invading ways, and are posting tweets related to how Facebook is set on collecting all your personal into one big database…so you’d better get your data out now before it’s too late!

    Of these, one of the more notable Insta-quitters is Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin, who at least explained her position with a bit more enthusiasm, not to mention vehemence, than others, saying, “I quit Facebook after the umptymillionth privacy fuckup. I vote with my attention and my data input. I vote no to that shit.”

    She also re-tweeted gdgt’s Peter Rojas, who posted:

    “Most people disagree, but I think it’s important to not use services you have issues with, even if they are free.”

    For what it’s worth, for a few, this reaction to Instagram’s news has come after careful consideration of the implications of using a service like Facebook.

    As for the rest…?

    Over-reaction from the Insta-hipsters? Another example of what all that Facebook fear-mongering can lead to? Or perhaps something indicative of a growing desire among social networking users for smaller, more private networks?

    Maybe a little of all of the above.

    Yes, Facebook is free, meaning you’re the product that gets sold. But Instagram is free, too, and massively growing. Eventually, it would have figured out how to monetize your eyeballs as well, albeit on a smaller scale than Facebook does now.

    But there’s still something to be said about these Insta-quitters, though – it could be that for these users, Instagram, like other, new micro social networks (think Path, Pair, Pinweel, etc.), had provided an alternative to, and even an escape from, Facebook and all its apparently frightening size and scale.

    And with that protection gone, so are they.

    UPDATE:

    Image credit: Hilariously, Instagram user QuarryGirl

    More On The Instagram acquisition

    Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billion, Turns Budding Rival Into Its Standalone Photo App

    From 0 To $1 Billion In Two Years: Instagram’s Rose-Tinted Ride To Glory

    Right Before Acquisition, Instagram Closed $50M At A $500M Valuation From Sequoia, Thrive, Greylock And Benchmark

    Facestagram: Five New Features Facebook + Instagram Could Launch

    With Instagram Buy, Facebook Officially Pushes M&A Strategy Beyond The ‘Acqui-hire’


    Crunchbase

    Company: Instagram
    Website: instagram.com
    Launch Date: March 2010
    Funding: $57.5M

    Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take photos, apply a filter, and share it on the service or a variety of other social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, and Posterous. The application is compatible with any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.1.2 or above or any Android device running Android 2.2 or above. In an homage to both the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, Instagram confines photos into a square...

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