Instagram Co-Founders Have Shockingly Resigned. Is This Yet Another #DeleteFacebook Moment?

Six years ago, Facebook acquired photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion. Now, both of the app¡¯s co-founders are resigning, supposedly to pursue other prospects.

But is it simply a search for greener pastures that's sending the two entrepreneurs elsewhere?

According to a report in The New York Times, both Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have quit ties with the social media giant. The news was later confirmed by a post on Instagram¡¯s blog. Systrom served as the company¡¯s CEO, while Krieger was the CTO.

In the late 2000s, Systrom and Krieger were developing a check-in app they called Burbn. Unfortunately, they realised it was too similar to the already existing Foursquare, so they decided to make some changes. In 2010, they pivoted the app towards photo-sharing and launched Instagram, a mashup of ¡°instant camera¡± and ¡°telegram¡±.

1/2: A message from our CEO Mark Zuckerberg: ¡°Kevin and Mike are extraordinary product leaders and Instagram reflects their combined creative talents. I've learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it.

¡ª Facebook (@facebook) September 25, 2018

Now, almost a decade later and just six years after the Facebook acquisition, the two heads are quitting their own company. This follows on the heels of other major executives under Facebook turning away. Just a coincidence?

Instagram's Mike Krieger (L) and Kevin Systrom (R) - Reuters

Last year, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton left WhatsApp to join secure messaging app Signal, and his partner Jan Koum also departed the company earlier this year. Reports indicated Acton and Koum hated working at Facebook, and were constantly at loggerheads with both its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg ever since they were acquired in 2014, over things like monetizing the app with ads.

On top of that, earlier this year Acton tweeted out in support of the #deleteFacebook movement. Reports at the time indicated the both co-founders were unhappy with Facebook¡¯s attempts to siphon more data from WhatsApp, possibly weakening its encryption in the process. The Cambridge Analytica scandal was likely then the last straw, for Koum at least.

Instagram¡¯s Systrom has posted in the blog that, after growing their app to 800 million users, he and Krieger believe they¡¯re ¡°ready for the next chapter.¡± But given Facebook¡¯s history with WhatsApp¡¯s now departed heads, it¡¯s possible that¡¯s simply a way of politely implying they¡¯re just done with Zuckerberg¡¯s handling of Instagram.

It¡¯s a worrying trend for the social media giant, which has been hemorrhaging executives in the past year.

And if Facebook can¡¯t pull up its socks and regain the trust of their employees as well as the public, things might spiral out of control pretty quick.