Facebook has banned users from uploading photos to the social network via third-party app Vintage Camera, with the app makers claiming the banning is because of its similarities to Facebook-owned Instagram.
Vintage Camera, which is available on Apple devices and claims to have seven million users worldwide, lets users share edited photos on social networks
Maker Presselite was told by Facebook it had been blocked due to negative feedback from users, with a message saying: “We’ve checked out the circumstances of your app’s restriction, and we found that your app received strong negative feedback from users and their friends.”
Facebook said it would be unable to restore the app’s functionality, and said in a statement in had issued three prior warnings over violation of its rules.
Presselite co-founder Antoine Morcos, however, asked in a press statement whether Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram last year may be “influencing” their policy.
“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,” Morcos said.
“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.”
Facebook last month blocked users of Twitter’s video-sharing app Vine from ‘finding people’ on Facebook, while Instagram has been no stranger to controversy, having lost half its active users since it controversially changed its terms of use. The decision was subsequently reversed.
