Internet users in this decade rarely have only 1 social media account. Usually, one has an account with Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram or many other platforms out there. There is usually a degree of sharing content between platforms, usually thanks to the functionality being baked in the operating systems on today’s smartphones but it is not always rosy as it seems.In the social media platform world, the number of active users and their engagement are one of their key performance indicators and they don’t like a situation where there is a decline in both metrics.
Facebook is notorious for being quite protective of their user base which is 1.6 billion strong and you can understand they won’t want a situation like that. We have seen a situation where they were blocking links from another social network, Tsu. Their subsidiary, WhatsApp, currently displays links from Telegram Messenger in text form instead of a hyperlink and that is what currently Instagram is doing.
When you add a link that redirects to your Telegram account, it displays a message: “Links asking someone to add you on another service aren’t supported on Instagram.” This behaviour was confirmed by TechCrunch where they received a statement from Instagram:
We’ve removed the ability to include ‘add me’ links on Instaram profile pages. This was a rare use-case, and not the way our platform was intended to be used. Other types of links are still allowed.
Telegram founder, Pavel Durov was also quoted by the publication about the issue:
It seems Instagram started to block links to Telegram accounts and channels from their website section (ie the only place on Instagram where you can have clickable links. Like in the case with WhatsApp blocking links to Telegram, we received no clarification or warning from Facebook/Instagram.
Telegram recently announced 2 major milestones where they now have 100 million active users and its growth rate is 350,000 users daily. These numbers can be a worrying factor for Facebook and that is why they are trying to discourage the acquisition of more users from their walled ecosystem.
