Instagram has dismissed another viral spam image that is circulating on its platform, this one claiming that, starting tomorrow, all user content will be made public (including deleted messages) and that the company will be able to use images against users in court. Instagram brand communications manager Stephanie Otway told WWD, ‘There’s no truth to this post.’
The image has gone viral thanks to, in part, accounts with large numbers of followers that reshared the claim, including ones belonging to musicians, actors and politicians. The image tells viewers that they must reshare the meme to prevent Instagram from using their images and other account details, but doing so is pointless and only helps surface the spam content.
This isn’t the first time claims related to user content have gone viral on social media. Facebook was forced to address similar claims in 2012 and again in 2015, for example. Instagram details the information it gathers on users and how it utilizes that information on its official Data Policy.
A casual photo session in Iceland resulted in a grandmother being swept out to sea while on her ‘Ice Throne,’ according to a recent news report. The incident, which resulted in a safe rescue and amusing image, involved Judith Streng, who was on Iceland’s Diamond Beach with her son when they spotted a throne-shaped piece of ice.
Streng was interviewed by ABC News after the images of her unexpected sea voyage went viral. During the interview, Streng explained that she spied the piece of ice, which was ‘shaped like an easy place to sit.’ Her son managed to take one image of Streng on her throne before the small iceberg began to ‘totter.’ Moments later, a wave dislodged the ice and pulled it — with Streng still seated atop — out to sea.
My grandmother almost got lost at sea in Iceland today lmaoooo pic.twitter.com/osHrwTEkyr
— babygirl, u dont know (@Xiushook) February 25, 2019
Fortunately, Randy Lacount, a boat captain with water rescue training from Florida, was nearby when the incident happened and was able to rescue Streng without trouble. Per her interview, Streng was able to joke about the moment, saying, ‘I’m always going to be queen. Come on, that was my chance.’
Instagram has released a statement clarifying a viral image that claims only 7% of a user’s followers can see content they share on the platform. Images of the clickbait claim have been making their rounds on the platform for months, usually with the header, ‘This is a test.’
A collection of posts with the hashtag #thisisatest that can be found when searching Instagram
According to a series of tweets from the company, Instagram hasn’t made any recent changes to its feed algorithm and doesn’t hide any posts from users.
We have not made any recent changes to feed ranking, and we never hide posts from people you’re following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.??
— Instagram (@instagram) January 22, 2019
Instagram addressed the claim in multiple tweets yesterday, stating that its users will see all posts from all accounts they follow, assuming they “keep scrolling” long enough.
Instagram replaced its chronological feed with one sorted by an algorithm in 2016. Since that time, Instagram users see content presented based on a number of factors, including how often they engage with a particular account and how often they check their feed. Some users have been confused by this change, which can make it appear that posts by some accounts are missing from the feed.
In March 2018, the company announced that it would tweak its algorithm based on this feedback so that newer posts were more likely to show up near the top of the feed.
New York City-based advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather’s latest ad campaign for KFC Hong Kong is on fire… so to speak. Tasked with advertising the release of KFC’s Hot & Spicy chicken, the agency created a clever collection of images that morphs the flaky breading and orange tint of crispy chicken into smoke and flames.
The clever Photoshop jobs include compositions of the spicy chicken with space shuttles, power rangers (we think?) and a rocket-toting drag racing car, but the concept has taken on a life of its own as all good memes do. A few Twitter users around the world have started Photoshopping their own versions of fried-chicken-as-fire.
The series of advertisements picked up attention from the Post-Production Ads Reference Awards for the clever campaign—a well -eserved accolade. Below are a list of contributors to the campaign, as seen on the Ogilvy and Mather agency’s Behance collection.
A photograph captured by US Geological Survey (USGS) photographer JB Judd in 1969 is ‘going viral’ online this week. The photo shows a massive, symmetrical lava dome fountain that was captured during a 5-year-long eruption of the Kilauea volcano’s Mauna Ulu cone between 1969 and 1974.
The so-called lava “bubble” measured approximately 65ft / 20m in height, and it owes its Internet fame to this “Throwback Thursday” tweet by the USGS:
Dome fountain of episode 10, October 10–13, 1969, eruption of Kilauea Volcano. This dome fountain is about 20 m (65 ft) high. Symmetrical dome fountains such as this are rare. #Tbt #HI @Volcanoes_NPS pic.twitter.com/sKSQaVINKs
— USGS (@USGS) March 29, 2018
After a bit of digging, the internet managed to unearth Judd’s original photograph of the lava bubble, which seems to have been flipped horizontally, straightened, and edited to produce the image shared on Twitter. The USGS photo page lists the estimated height of the bubble as 50 to 75 meters, or approximately 164 to 246 feet, and describes symmetrical dome fountains such as these as “rare.”
The image is one of many public domain photos in the USGS photo archive. To see more, head over to the USGS website where you can browse the full collection.
When photographer Justin Hofman snapped this photo while snorkeling off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumbawa in 2016, he couldn’t have guessed the environmental impact the snapshot would have. A year later, the photograph is a finalist in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, and has been dubbed “the poster child for today’s marine trash crisis.”
Hofman is based out of California, but he travels all over the world leading wildlife expeditions. This photo was captured on one-such expedition in Indonesia.
He was gleefully watching this seahorse bounce from natural object to natural object, hitching rides on the current, when something changed. Here’s a piece of the official image caption:
“As the tide started to come in, the mood changed. The water contained more and more decidedly unnatural objects—mainly bits of plastic—and a film of sewage sludge covered the surface. The seahorse let go of a piece of seagrass and seized a long, wispy piece of clear plastic. As a brisk wind at the surface picked up, making conditions bumpier, the seahorse took advantage of something that offered a more stable raft: a waterlogged plastic cotton swab.”
When Hofman shared the photo on his Instagram account last week, it received over 17K likes and 1,100 comments, but it’s a photo he wishes didn’t exist. “This sea horse drifts along with the trash day in and day out as it rides the currents that flow along the Indonesian archipelago,” he wrote on IG. “This photo serves as an allegory for the current and future state of our oceans.”
A post shared by Justin Hofman (@justinhofman) on
As for capturing the photo itself, we asked Hofman if he would like to share anything with our audience of photographers directly. This is what he had to say:
The thing I would really like to tell photographers is to a) Listen to your gut and b) Don’t worry so much about gear.
If you look at this encounter, on paper it doesn’t really make that much sense: I captured a photo of a 1 inch sea horse using a 35mm lens (16-35mm). Most people, if you had told them of the scenario would say to bring a macro lens. But I never have a macro lens on my camera. I am always afraid that a whale will swim by while I have a 105mm on, which would make it worthless. If I am unsure or just goofing off, I will always bring with me the most flexible lens I can. This ensures that whatever comes by, I have given myself the best opportunity possible to capture the moment.
Of course there will always be sacrifices, but the flexibility is key. If I had had a macro lens, I can 100% assure you that this photo would not have been possible because we were both bobbing around too much to make a sharp macro shot possible. Even with a 35mm, I only have a handful of photos that are actually in focus.
And in case you are curious about gear, he also shared that the photo was taken with an A7R II and Sony 16-35mm F4 lens in a Nauticam housing with a Sea and Sea 240mm dome and two Sea and Sea ys-d1 strobes.
To see more of Hofman’s work, be sure to visit his website or give his account a follow on Instagram. And if you’d like to learn more about ocean conservation, Justin suggests you visit SeaLegacy.org.
Need a bit of comic relief this Monday? How about nightmare fuel? This panorama selfie gone-wrong provides a little bit of both. The photo was captured by Mitchell Flann, who was using his Samsung Galaxy S7 to take a selfie of himself and girlfriend Erika Gomos.
They were using the phone’s Wide Selfie mode, which requires that you stand still while the camera is panned up to 120° to capture more of the scene. According to Samsung’s website, Wide Selfie “puts an end to getting cropped out.” While that’s technically correct, it did a bit more than that for Flann when Erika sneezed halfway through the selfie.
The nightmarish shot they captured has gone ‘viral’ as they say, earning an insane 150K upvotes on Reddit.
“We’re on vacation in Budapest and I couldn’t even enjoy the scenery at parliament because of the tears,” Flann said on Reddit. Apparently they’ve been taking photos like this across Europe, with some pretty fun malfunctions along the way, but nothing else has turned out quite like this.
A post shared by Bergün – Filisur (@berguen.filisur) on
Just days after ‘banning’ photography, the Swiss village of Bergüm has, not surprisingly, reversed course. In a bizarre video, the mayor of Bergüm states that ‘until the ban on photography is officially lifted, everyone with a camera will be given a friendly special permit.’
The video leaves little doubt that the whole thing was a PR stunt, with Mayor Peter Nicolay proclaiming ‘the beauty of our village has become world-famous thanks to our friendly photography ban.’ Judging by how quickly the story spread, the stunt worked exactly as planned.
The Rio Olympics have come to a close, and there’s no doubt that these summer games have been memorable. World records were smashed, heroes were made and the best sports photographers in the game captured it all. But what may go down as one of the most memorable images from the games is actually two photos, captured by two photographers a fraction of a second apart.
Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuter’s.
Embed from Getty Images
Cameron Spencer of Getty Images and Kai Pfaffenbach of Reuter’s snapped nearly identical photos of Bolt and his grin as he neared the finish line of the 100m race. It’s not easy to spot the difference until you notice that Bolt’s right hand is sharp in one image and blurred in the other.
Naturally, the nuance was entirely lost on the internet, particularly on Twitter where the photos quickly became the subject of countless memes. As is the way with memes, both photos went viral without credit to either of the photographers who took them. The dual photos even confused a well-meaning Sports Illustrated writer who gave credit to Spencer while tweeting the photo taken by Pfaffenbach. After the error was brought to his attention he issued an apology.
Most news coverage used (and credited) Spencer’s photo. Articles that document the popularity of the meme mostly reference the Getty photo as well, even though Pfaffenbach’s photo appears to have been used more widely.
Did you notice the different photos in circulation? Why do you think one photographer got more attention and credit for his photo? Let us know in the comments.
