Blog #5 - Hidden in Plain Sight

Nathan Gillispie

Hidden in Plain Sight

Every social media application has rules and guidelines that the platform operates under. Much like how the sport of football has regulations and guidelines to follow, social media has rules with how the application is supposed to be operated and designed to use. The 'Terms and Conditions' user policy is oftentimes overlooked by the majority of users that want to hop on the platform as soon as possible. It would be interesting if someone took time out of their day to read these terms and conditions and see what it actually states. I looked at Instagram’s lengthy terms and conditions and broke down my findings into three important categories: service, security, and content.

 Initially finding Instagram’s “terms and conditions” was not too tricky to do, as I knew where to look (under the settings tab). Once you were under the settings tab, Instagram gives you a variety of options that are tailored toward consumer personalization. At the very bottom of the tabs, you see an “About” icon that is meant to provide the user with information on the platform. Under the “About” tab you can find the Terms of Use policy (terms and conditions), Data Policies, and Open Source Libraries that provide source coding for network packages, etc. Upon clicking the Terms of Use section, I was greeted with a somewhat outdated appearance to Instagram’s service page. It had a search bar at the top of the sheet to provide quick and specific results for individuals who have particular questions.

 The first section of the Terms of Use page was a welcoming paragraph that orders the information as follows: Service, Data, Commitment, Rights, Accounts, Agreements, and Licensing. Before I could start reading the first section on Instagram’s service my page I was interrupted by giant bolded letters that spoke on waiving personal rights to file class-action lawsuits or other forms of filing claims. I figured Instagram must have plenty of Lawsuits to keep them busy if that was the first thing on the page. The Instagram Service provides aspects of offering personalized opportunities to create, connect, communicate, discover, and share content on its platform. They promote a positive, inclusive, and safe environment with a team dedicated to combating abusive and violations of policy. Instagram offers a consistent and seamless experience across company-owned platforms like Facebook. Ensuring a stable global infrastructure for connecting millions of users across the world is how Instagram contributes to the well-being of their community.

“Video: Smartphone Showing Instagram Terms and Conditions on Display ~ #88736554.” Pond5, www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/88736554-smartphone-showing-instagram-terms-and-conditions-display

The Data Policy was in a separate tab from the Terms and Conditions agreement. It mainly discussed how user data is collected and used amongst its platform and how the information is shared with other company-owned products. You have a limited amount of control over what the company does with your data once you add it to your profile; however, you can adjust who can see your personal information amongst other Instagram users through the Privacy and Security Settings. In order to use Instagram, you must agree to the Data Policy that Instagram provides.

Instagram provides a free experience to their users and in return expect “commitments” from their users. Instagram has a list of specific restrictions for who they intend to use their product in order to be a part of their community.

·      You must be at least 13 years old.

·      You must not be prohibited from receiving any aspect of our Service under applicable laws or engaging in payments related Services if you are on an applicable denied party listing.

·      We must not have previously disabled your account for violation of law or any of our policies.

·      You must not be a convicted sex offender.

These restrictions may limit some users from accessing an account on the platform and being a part of their online community. Despite Instagram laying specific restrictions on who can use an account, I doubt that those rules are closely monitored because I am sure plenty of online users have an account well-under the age of 13. Instagram may provide a grazing period for those restrictions or might not pay mind to them at all unless it's involved with litigation. Along with the commitments section, Instagram lays out the purpose for its intended use and what people should not be using Instagram for. Instagram use should not be made for impersonating others, providing inaccurate information, unlawful or fraudulent acts, interfere with the intended operation of service, buy/sell or transfer aspects of personal accounts, post private or confidential information, or use domain URLs in usernames. A few of these I was fully aware of without having to read over; however, I was taken by surprise with not being able to buy/sell account information. I never thought of that as being a restriction but, it certainly is and you can get into trouble if caught doing it. Part of Instagram’s commitments deal with the permission you give Instagram upon making an account. Instagram does not claim ownership of your personal content but you grant them a license to use the information if it is on their platform. Instagram cannot claim ownership of personal content that is posted by users as that would be a violation of federal intellectual property rights. Instagram is granted to use non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide licensing to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works from your content. This basically means Instagram reserves the right to do anything they wish with the content you post on their account which is scary to think about as we all agreed to these terms, most likely without knowing. Instagram provided a few other reserved rights like disabling accounts, sharing information with partnered platforms (Facebook), monitoring and modifying user profile/content.

Higgins, Marissa. “The Instagram Feature You Didn't Know You Needed.” Bustle, Bustle, 2 Feb. 2017, www.bustle.com/p/how-to-unsend-direct-messages-on-instagram-35136.

Instagram’s next main topic of concern was about “Content Removal and Disabling or Terminating an Account”. This is probably the most sought after information on this page as everyone wants to know “what to do in order to get kicked off”. Instagram makes it pretty clear what will warrant blocked content and disabled accounts under the Instagram Community Guidelines but does not specify the actual conditions in the Terms and Conditions report. Instead, Instagram just clarifies that they do retain the right to block content, disable/terminate accounts, and take legal actions with those who violate policy or put them at legal risk for exposure. Instagram offers a 24/7 help center to assist users with problems they may have with their accounts or actions taken by the company.

Lloyd, Jack. “How to Reactivate Instagram.” WikiHow, WikiHow, 30 July 2019, www.wikihow.com/Reactivate-Instagram.

After skim-reading such a heavy document on the terms and use of the Instagram platform I do not feel much more informed if I had not read it. The Terms and Conditions agreement appears when creating a new account on any media platform and I’m glad I choose to skip them. They are usually full of useless information that average media users are already accustomed to and are too lengthy to be taken seriously. The information laid out in the Terms of Use for Instagram was material that anyone could have gathered from pure common sense. There were a few things that would have been useful, had they bolded them and arranged them toward the top. Items such as the minimum age for an account or the agreement right to use your content would be interesting to know instead of digging through a 10-page report. I’m led to believe that media platforms do not intend for users to actually read the terms and conditions but have them there for protection during civil cases and lawsuits.

https://www.instagram.com/about/legal/terms/api/