Instagram acquisition prompts user backlash

The founders of Instagram are “psyched” to be joining Facebook in a $US1 billion deal, but the backlash from users has highlighted the drawbacks of being acquired by an industry giant.

Based in San Francisco, Instagram is a free photo-sharing mobile application that allows users to take a photo, apply a digital filter and then share it on a variety of social networking services or through the app itself.

It was founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who, according to Systrom, “set out to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares”.