To regram or not to regram that is the question. I have been pondering the discussions that came out of the #DigiBlogChat I participated in a couple of weeks ago about Instagram and regramming. The topic came up and further discussion was had by a few of us after the chat session on whether it is ok to regram.
What Is A Regram
According to Urban Dictionary the act of regramming is to repost content on Instagram.
If You Regram Are You Breaking Any Rules
I have read the TOU (Terms Of Use) & the Community Guidelines on Instagram, read through some blog posts, and had quite an in depth discussion on Twitter with Carol Stephen & Robert Nissanbaum after the #DigiBlogChat.
As far as I could see in the documentation that I have read so far there is nothing about regramming specifically. However, that said it does explicitly talk about owning your content. Here’s what it says in Paragraph #4 of Instagram’s Terms of Use under Rights:
You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Service or otherwise have the right to grant the rights and licenses set forth in these Terms of Use; (ii) the posting and use of your Content on or through the Service does not violate, misappropriate or infringe on the rights of any third party, including, without limitation, privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademark and/or other intellectual property rights; (iii) you agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owed by reason of Content you post on or through the Service; and (iv) you have the legal right and capacity to enter into these Terms of Use in your jurisdiction.
Another piece to consider is the Instagram app itself and the functionality. Does it allow you to regram within the app? The answer to this question is NO it does not. So, if the app itself does not have this functionality then it would make sense that you should not regram unless you sought out explicit permission from the person who owns the content. Even then I am currently not comfortable with regramming.
What About Third Party Apps
Yes, there are third party apps that give you the capability of regramming/reposting from the Instagram feed. Even though these exist you have to ask yourself the basic question “Do I have permission from the owner to regram/repost their content?” These apps do give credit to the original post however, you still don’t actually have permission from the owner.
That said I am leaning towards staying away from third party apps that provide this service.
More Thoughts
This topic is very complicated when you think about what social media is about. It’s about sharing. In other social channels it is obvious that this is what you do. In Instagram not so much. We have been conditioned to share other peoples content through social media. The difference is that in Instagram it’s not built into the app to regram.
So unless you have permission from said owner of the content you should not regram or repost in Instagram.
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