If you’re one of those who almost deleted your Instagram account but did not because you figured you’d give them one last chance to stop leaning towards the dark side, the latest round of Facebook/Instagram controversy should be enough to push you over the edge. As has been widely covered, Instagram and Facebook are locking people out of their accounts and requiring government issued photo IDs to get back into them. The story isn’t the fact that they’re doing this; Facebook has been known to have zero concern for their users and a distinct willingness to push their social media addiction to the limits….

The cold war between Facebook and Twitter continued Thursday and nobody was really surprised by it. Vine, the new video app by Twitter that allows looping 6-second videos to be recorded and posted to the microblogging site, launched with the ability for users to find their Facebook friends that were also using the app. That ability lasted a few hours on Thursday before Facebook shut down API access. “It’s basically an annoyance, a hindrance on an easy way to connect with all your existing friends using the service,” wrote Mike Isaac. “It would have been a good way to jump into a new product, rather…

Facebook purists will pan this post. They will say that the best way to post to Facebook is to post whatever you’re doing or thinking right now, that “planning” posts is not only insincere but that it undermines the point of Facebook altogether. Their points are valid and noted. Now, let’s talk about reality. Busy people who have their own social media and potentially the social media profiles of sites and companies with which they work need tools. It’s true that the best way to post to Facebook is through the native interfaces – Facebook.com itself and their mobile app. However, there are drawbacks….

Those who follow my writing know that I’m a skeptical, cynical conspiracy theorist who thinks that governments, companies, and entities we don’t even know about are all out to get us. I promote privacy, transparency, security, and an open internet free of nearly all forms of censorship. I believe that most online companies, particularly those associated with social media, will at some point show their true colors and try to use our data and content for profit in one way or another. I call out companies that do this and I try to warn people of the potential evils that can take over actions with even…

It is amazing how our technology has advanced far to exclude ignorance that some may assume that others with impairments may not be able to enjoy certain apps on a mobile device that is geared towards those who can see, much like the photo-sharing social app, Instagram. …

The short answer – yes, a little. There are rarely moves made by one social company that make me believe they can really hurt another social company, but this one is different. Instagram’s relationship with Twitter has been one of love and hate since before anyone realized there was a growing tension between the social networking giant and Facebook’s mobile secret weapon. The fact that Twitter added filters to their photo apps will not strain the relationship any further; in essence, there is nothing really left to strain. Facebook started the ill-will in April when they purchased Instagram….

Facebook Ireland who is in charge of the interaction that happens between the U.S and Europe are making changes to the Data Use Policy on Facebook but not without your input. Recently, they allowed Facebook users to submit suggestions and ask questions (which is now closed) and have read and uncovered the biggest concerns for the majority who participated which led for them to revise their proposal since the request for language to be clearer was one of the major wishes. The next process is allowing you to vote on the new data use policy through a third party app on Facebook and you can do so until December…

A little less than a month ago, Twitter blocked API privileges for Instagram making it unable to allow users to find Twitter friends and add them. Now, Twitter has done pretty much the same thing with Tumblr. The sign-up procedure of Tumblr normally includes a step that allows you to find friends on the service using Facebook, Gmail and Twitter. Now, the Twitter option has been removed. What is Twitter thinking? What is the purpose behind not allowing people to integrate with other services so easily? Twitter has always been an easy way for people to share their own data; by signing up through Twitter…

The presumptions of reporters are often baffling. Bloggers (myself included) are usually worse, but when everyone in the tech blogging world and even respected journalists at the NYTimes start talking about “inexperience” and “hasty negotiations” being behind the losses in paper wealth that the founders of Instagram are taking, I have to wonder why they get paid to write at all. In hindsight, Instagram probably should have cut a different deal with Facebook rather than go along for the ride with the majority of the purchase tied to stock without the protections that most mergers of this type…

  The next Social Media giant is right before our eyes, known as the photo filtering and sharing social mobile app, Instagram. Although its launch date was in October of 2010 it has gained 80 million users in less than two years. It took Facebook nearly 4 years after its initial launch and Twitter 5 years before its user base reached 100 million, so with 20 million more users Instagram will hit the 100 million mark. It will not be surprising if they do prior to their 2 year anniversary since their user base has increased by 166% after opening up on two mobile platforms, iOS and Android as well as the recent…