Facebook Inc. today appointed Adam Mosseri, previously Instagram’s vice
president of product, to lead the photo-sharing social network following
the resignation of co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger
In
an effort to allay fears of internal dissent, the announcement was made
by Systrom (pictured, right) and Krieger (left), who posed smiling
together with Mosseri (middle).
While officially leaving
Instagram to take “some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity
again” and possibly to pursue building a new startup from scratch,
rumors have circulated since the announcement that the real reason the
pair were departing was disagreements with Facebook Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg over the direction of the app.
Their resignation also
followed in the steps of Jan Koum, co-founder and CEO of Facebook-owned
messaging giant WhatsApp, who quit Facebook in April over disagreements
over data privacy, advertising and encryption.
The appointment
of Mosseri was pitched as bringing continuity to Instagram. “Since we
announced our departure, many people have asked us what we hope for the
future of Instagram,” Systrom and Krieger said in a blog post. “To us,
the most important thing is keeping our community — all of you — front
and center in all that Instagram does. We believe that Adam will hold
true to these values and that Instagram will continue to thrive.”
Although
Mosseri has been appointed from within the ranks of Instagram, he only
joined Instagram in May and prior to that was a Facebook veteran who had
served in multiple roles. Prior to Instagram, he was in charge of
Facebook’s News Feed for a number of years and before that he led
Facebook Home, a failed attempt to sell a Facebook-branded version of
Android.
Notably, he is also seen as being close to Zuckerberg.
Systrom and Krieger may be selling the idea of Instagram being in safe
hands with Mosseri, but Recode note that the move comes at a time
Zuckerberg “seems to be tightening control on all Facebook’s standalone
apps, including Instagram.”
Zuckerberg lackey or not, Mosseri does have solid experience and Instagram could be in far worse hands.
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