Recently, Instagram denied Twitter the function to display Instagram photos directly in people’s Twitter feeds. This took the blogosphere (does that even exist anymore?) by storm and everyone started to be angry. 

As Michael Arrington points out in a recent TechCrunch post, Instagram is officially in the “it’s our data” club.

He starts off by explaining what happened (in layman terms):

Mostly people are saying it’s ok that Instagram is screwing us by removing our ability to properly share our pictures on Twitter. Because Twitter screwed Instagram multiple times in the recent past.

Twitter, of course, only screwed Instagram because Instagram screwed Twitter right before Twitter screwed them. Because Instagram decided that they’d rather be acquired by Facebook instead of Twitter.

Screw that, thought Twitter. We used to love Instagram, particularly during the time while we were trying to buy Instagram. But then we didn’t buy them and so, obviously, we now hate Instagram. We’re gonna screw them and bad.

And concludes:

See that? They thought about doing the right thing, which may have even gathered so much long-term user loyalty that they could be sitting on a hundred year brand. And in the middle of thinking all those noble thoughts about doing right by users they just slapped themselves back down to earth and did what they always do.

Seize all assets within reach, and tell the sheeple users that they were sadly forced to do this to protect the data, which is their data now, and PS thank you very much for transferring all that data you made to us. High five! Then go home and pour yourself a double Macallan, neat, and tell yourself again how much you are helping the world become a better place.

You win at long-term if you’re nice to your users. Could this be the start of a downhill motion for Instagram?