Instagram Doesn’t Own Your Photos, but They Can Still Use Them Forever
Earlier this week, Judd Apatow, Debra Messing and Rick Perry – the Secretary of Energy and the man in control of all our nuclear weapons – fell for a lie that was circulating on Instagram: Instagram changed its policy so they can use all of your photos, posts and more. information at their disposal.
Naturally, and without fact-checking, celebrities began re-posting warnings in the form of screenshots to their millions of followers. “Don’t forget that a new Instagram rule is starting tomorrow where they can use your photos,” the message reads with a few punctuation marks. “[…] Everything that you have ever posted becomes public today, even posts that have been removed or photographs banned.” In all caps, the post also contained wording that said they would not grant Instagram permission to use their images or posts.
The message looks like an email sent by your aunt to a Hotmail account, and yet you couldn’t avoid it if you followed any random celebrity on Instagram.
And technically it’s not true. Instagram hasn’t recently changed its policies or terms of service regarding ownership; the platform still does not claim ownership of your photos. In a statement to BuzzFeed News , an Instagram spokesperson also denied the post was credible.
But they already have the right to use the photos and have for a long time – non-exclusive, royalty-free, transfer, sublicense, worldwide licenses to be exact. They also have permission to use your username, profile photo, and “your relationship information”. (However, they do not explicitly have a right to your private messages.)
Another important question that begs to be asked about these types of hoaxes is: Does posting a post allegedly revoking permission from a platform like Instagram or Facebook really matter? Snopes recently re-shared their story, in which the site verified a similar hoax circulated on Facebook. (Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012).
As they point out, after successfully registering an account with Facebook or Instagram, you agree to its terms and privacy policy, which means that such public statements are useless.
And according to Eric Perrott, a trademark and copyright attorney , there is little you can do on Instagram to protect yourself. “Users might consider adding a watermark or other physical attribution that is not easy to remove, but that is likely to be a problem for aesthetics,” he said in an email. “Otherwise, I think the answer is to carefully consider the commercial value of any photos / art being posted and consider making a site more user-friendly for the content creators, or self-hosting any content he or she wants over. get exclusive control. “
Snopes offers several limited alternatives: you can close your account, although you may have already ceded some rights. Or, if you’re lucky, just don’t subscribe and they’ll never be able to use your photos.