Two Day Anti-SPAM Protest on Instagram Starts Today
Image © Saniphoto | Dreamstime.com
Image © Saniphoto | Dreamstime.com
Besieged with SPAM on Instagram for months, and furious that Instagram and Facebook have not devoted the resources to resolve this issue or even seem to care about it, Instagram photographers and artists are fighting back with a two day protest that begins at 12:00AM on 2013-04-15 and continues through 12:00AM on 2013-04-17. Instagram is a social media platform and mobile device app for the Apple iPhone and iPad and Google Android mobile devices that can be downloaded and used for free.
If you have an Instagram account, please SET YOUR ACCOUNT TO PRIVATE and THEN LOG OUT OF INSTAGRAM by 12:00AM on 2013-04-15 local time, wherever you are, and STAY LOGGED OUT until 12:00AM on 2013-04-17 local time, whereever you are.
Ever since mid to late 2012, spam has become an ever-increasing problem on Instagram, a site that once was spam-free. A similar one day protest in November 2012 resulted in spammers either going away or getting quiet, but now they are back. And back in hoardes. Spammers post inappropriate comments on photographs usually targeted at getting Instagram account holders to go to a url on the web to buy followers in order to get more likes for their photographs. People who dream of having their photographs make it to the Popular wall on Instagram may be tempted to do so; however, buying likes to me is like buying votes - very shady indeed and shows a complete lack of character! For the vast majority of serious photographers (and I like to consider myself one, even though my first love is painting), being on Instagram is not about the likes or the followers, and it most certainly is not about being on the Popular page. It is about having a social media platform where it is fun to share your photographs with other photographers and photography enthusiasts, to participate in photography challenges, and just to enjoy looking at beautiful photographs.
Instagram photographers can also sign up for a free Instacanv.as account online and have their Instagram photographs automatically posted to a beautiful online web gallery where customers can view and buy high quality reprints on a variety of media; including canvas, framed prints, acrylic prisms, iphone5-4S-4 cases and fine art cards. Photographers receive 20% of the proceeds from sales on Instacanv.as; Instacanv.as receives 80%. While this commission structure is astronomically in favor of Instacanv.as, Instacanv.as handles all online ordering for customers, order-tracking, manufacturing, production, shipping, and returns of products, as well as photographer payments and tax reporting; and they provide customers with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. While this all sounds well and good, for any social media platform to be enjoyable to use, and therefore for anyone to want to use it, it must be FREE OF SPAM.
Other photography sharing sites are not plagued with spam. Sites like EyeEm, Google+, Path, Pinterest, and StreamZoo do not have a similar spam problem. Even Facebook does not have this kind of spam problem, and Facebook bought Instagram last year. So it is a mystery why this problem continues only on Instagram and why the developers at Instagram and Facebook seemingly care so little about their devoted users that they refuse to acknowledge or do anything about this very real and very annoying problem.
In response, Instagram photgraphers have organized a grass-roots campaign to try to persuade Instagram and Facebook to do something to stop the spammers once and for all. GOING PRIVATE prevents new people from following you on Instagram without your prior approval (including spammers). But going private also carries a penalty with it of not allowing private accounts to participate in photo challenges and contests on Instagram, something which most photographers enjoy doing. This is a particularly tacky policy of Instagram. It is bad enough that photographers are forced to go private because of Instagram and Facebook's unwillingness to allocate the resources and budget to do something about spam; but then to be penalized for doing so is like rubbing salt in an open wound.
LOGGING OUT OF INSTAGRAM and having ZERO ACTIVITY THERE FOR TWO DAYS - NO POSTS, NO COMMENTS, NO LIKES will hopefully send a message to Instagram and Facebook that we are serious and cause them to allocate the necessary resources to solve this problem.
TOGETHER WE HAVE A STRONG VOICE; Divided we are but a whisper.
So fellow igers, please go private and log out of Instagram until 2013-04-17. Please help us try to return Instagram to the great social media platform that it once was, a place to share and showcase your photography, without having to deal with annoying SPAM every minute of every day. As for this photographer, even though I will miss my Instagram friends immensely, if this protest does not result in Instagram and Facebook solving the spam problem once and for all, then I will be looking for a different social media platform. Because having to take time to delete and report every item of spam on every one of my photographs, and to search for and block spammers manually, with apparently no lasting effect on the spammers at all, not only takes more time than I have to use a social media platform, it takes all the fun out of being there in the first place.
Thank you for supporting this cause!
Anna Porter
Anna Porter Artist
Fine Art and Digital Photography
http://instagram.com/annaporterartist
https://facebook.com/annaporterart
