For Sites Like Instagram and Twitter, Imitation Is the Only Form of Flattery – Gizmodo

The last decade has been one of thievery, not one of innovation.Illustration: Allison CorrThe say that capitalism breeds innovation, but as social media popularity persists into the 2020’s, nothing gets the free market moving like the TikTok-ification of Facebook or the Snapchat-ification of Instagram. In our present day, social media companies appear to be less interested in innovating, and more interested in Frankenstein-ing. Over the last decade, some of the most popular social media apps have blatantly ripped off features from some of the other most popular social media apps, in a tech version of Capture the Flag where the only losers are the users who are forced to persist through this cat-and-mouse game.It’s important to note that Facebook (now Meta) purchased Instagram in 2012, but for the sake of exploring how features from one platform have dispersed into another, Instagram and Facebook will be treated as separate entities.Instagram steals VinesThe beginning of the end was nine years ago. Vine brought short-form video content to smartphones in January 2013, allowing users to create looping 6.5 second videos with ease and share them with their friends. Vine’s novelty made the app a staple in Millennial culture: Pre-existing platforms like Twitter, Facebook,…
Read More