Instagram starts blocking links to select rival platforms

Instagram has started blocking links to select rival platforms, saying it was disallowing 'add me' deep-linking to Telegram and Snapchat. Until recently, users could include links to a range of social networking websites on the 'add me' or 'follow me' section of their account. In a move possibly aimed at curbing competition, the company was preventing users from including links to a Snapchat or Telegram profile on an Instagram account.

"We've removed the ability to include 'add me' links on Instagram profile pages. This was a rare use-case, and not the way our platform was intended to be used. Other types of links are still allowed," a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch. The spokesman, however, specified that users could still link to Telegram and Snapchat but not as an 'add-me' link.

Instagram, however, continued with "other types of links" on the platform. For instance, users could still add links to their blogs, websites, Twitter handle, Facebook profile, YouTube channel, and iTunespage.

Snapchat is one of the fastest growing photo-sharing platform, which in many ways competed directly with Instagram, while Telegram, which recently hit 100 million monthly active users, continued to be one of the biggest competitors to Instagram.

Pavel Durov, Telegram founder suggested the reason behind the move in a blog post:  ''Our 100M active users or the rise of Telegram Channels,'' he suggests, adding, ''From their side, they might've noticed more and more Instagram users setting links to their Telegram accounts and channels in the website section of Instagram.''

According to TechCrunch, Telegram's Channels broadcast feature launched last September, replaced an older 'broadcast lists' feature that did not support unlimited reach. The new Channels can be public and users would be able to send content to an unlimited number of people. The new feature shifted the emphasis of Telegram away from more bounded mobile messaging to a more fully featured and public-facing social media service.