Facebook’s competitive streak seems to still rage hot as it blocks access to yet another third-party app. The victim this time is photo editing app Vintage Camera which incidentally offers many of the same features as Facebook-owned Instagram.
Vintage Camera is an app for the iOS that enables users to add retro-style filters to photos, similar to what Instagram offers. Recently however, its user base of around 8 million erupted in a furor after Facebook banned uploads stemming from the app.
Antoine Morcos, co-founder of the app, had some words to throw at Facebook regarding the blockade.
”We don’t understand how Facebook could block the access to millions of users of the Vintage Camera application who want to share their photos on Facebook, only because of a few negative feedback reports. As you all know, Facebook has acquired the Instagram photo-sharing application, and we hope this acquisition is not influencing this kind of access limitation for other photo applications.”
Morcos’ diatribe branches off from a response Facebook game when Vintage Camera appealed the ban. Facebook claimed that there are “negative feedback from users and their friends” . Morcos finds the alibi weak as he in turn claims that there is only 1 negative feedback per 1000 photos uploaded using the blocked app.
Facebook however countered that Vintage Camera has been repeatedly warned of its violations. Its failure to act and conform to Facebook policies was the proverbial nail on the coffin, leading to a ban that Facebook has no intention of lifting anytime soon.
“While we provide an open platform, every application on Platform is required to meet our policies. We take both automated and manual steps to detect violations and ensure compliance. Pending on the violation, we give developers an opportunity to come into compliance via a warning system. In the case of this application, the application was not in compliance with our platform policies and had received three warnings prior to our systems taking action on the application.”
Well, whatever the reason, the block on Vintage Camera currently still stands. What do you think of this move by Facebook? Is it becoming too aggressive on its bid for social network dominance or do you think that it is acting only out of keeping its user base’s best intentions in mind? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic below.