Instagram purge: stupid action or wise move?

Instagram is a photo sharing social media site like Flickr and has been loved by millions upon millions of users and followers online. However, the BBC reports that this giant’s app has deleted millions of accounts of its users in a purge of spam. The company thinks this is a wise move, even though it has raised wave upon wave of criticism from its users, especially those whose accounts have been deleted. Now people call it “Instagram Rapture”. Is this a wise move or a stupid action?

For most Chinese net users, this site may not be that famous or even visible (I have just known about it recently), while for those who love sharing photos, pictures or even images, this site must be very familiar to them in spite of their nationalities. Now that it has been named “Instagram Rapture”, a reaction from the outside world is that this is not a good move. 

Some stars and photo marketers have lost numerous followers, and numerous followers find they are not allowed to enter their accounts anymore. This is terrible! Why is that? It is the problem of those spammers? I think so, partially. Now I consider myself an online working guy, especially closely connected with online social media and search engines. So, I know spammers are everywhere in this virtual world. 

However, spammers can be divided into different groups because their spamming actions are different. Some are not that serious. For example, I have noticed that some people type links and email addresses into the area where they should comment. Some are even much better, for they have comments and links or email addresses. Others are terrible spammers, for they just send messages that you cannot figure out what they are talking about because their words are wrongly ordered, sentences are broken and even words are not correctly spelled. However, embedded in them are links that direct to sites where certain products are sold. And some spammers even make a whole medium system look stupid or like rubbish. I once worked in Beijing and our company built an online forum, but in only a few days it was stuffed with spam. That time each day when we got online, our first job was to delete them manually. That was crappy! 

Does this example suggest I support deleting all spammers’ accounts? Not yet! For those serious spammers, our wise move is to delete them without discussion; for those who have spamming signs, our wise move is to warn them not to do it again and tell them to do this somewhere else where links and email addresses are allowed. For those who are in the middle, our wise move is to let them know punishment if they commit “crimes” and benefits if they help make the platform more attractive. For those who behave well or very well, our wise move is to reward them and encourage them to do better in the future. 

However, Instagram seems to have no judgment of what is wrong or right. Just one knife cutting! Those who should have been cut have been cut correctly; those who just deserved penalties or warnings have been cut unfairly; and those who have been behaving well have been cut tragically. That’s why its move has drawn so much negative attention from users and others who care about this issue. This will teach Instagram a lesson, or not. 

Now I think you - my friends know what my point is, don’t you? 

The original blog is: http://blog.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-1395221-25510.html