Instagram has become synonymous with our day-to-day lives. Whether Sunday morning brunch presents a decadent latté, a day of travel brings ‘Insta-worthy’ memories, or a new product was launched by a company, many of us use and love Instagram. However, the issue of embedded social media posts has stimulated much of a negative following for the platform, and not only recently.
News of this cyber clash once emerged back in 2017 with one snapshot of NFL QB Tom Brady mingling with the Boston Celtics’ GM while enjoying a Hamptons outing. Of course, this photo, taken by observer Mr. Goldman, took its turn on our various social media platforms. First, the photo was a star on Snapchat. Then, the screenshot trended on Twitter. Finally, it pranced to the one now in the hot seat: Instagram.
And so, what happened? After news outlets began using Instagram’s embed feature to spread the story that Brady was helping the team recruit NBA champion Kevin Durant, Goldman himself sued the media organizations. Though the case eventually settled, the New York federal judge deciding the case sided with Goldman.
Similarly, the following year, the issue of embedded social media posts arose to the forefront as professional photographer, Stephanie Sinclair, sued global, multi-platform media and entertainment giant Mashable. However, a different New York federal judge held the opposite, purportedly finding a provision that supported Instagram’s right to sublicense uploaded photos.
Still in a state of perplexity after the juxtaposing holdings, a different judge, ironically a third New York federal judge, is set to hear the same issue, this time between Elliot McGucken and Newsweek. So, while we know the Court and we know the issue of embedded social media posts, we are still begging for an actual, uniform decision, one that just might be a so-called ‘Insta famous’ decision.
But instead of the wait or even a commercial break, why not just sue Instagram directly? Indeed, attorney Solomon Cera has, in fact, sued Instagram, on behalf of two users, and in theory, on behalf of us as similarly situated Instagram’s users. Specifically, Cera argues the embed feature violates copyright laws and that Instagram has misled us as its users to believe that we are allowed to embed copyrighted works of art from any Instagram handle. Moreover, Cera argues that Instagram has also misled third parties in terms of whether a license or permission to embed the posts is necessary. In fact, Cera himself might want to consider starting an Insta page dedicated to analogies, as he likens this to “eating for free at a buffet table of photos by virtue of simply using the Instagram embedding tool.”
So just how much are we really benefiting from Instagram? Certainly, social media is never as perfect as it may seem.
Works Cited:
on court with steph 
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