Instagram Officially Considers Israel’s Mobli a Threat

Behemoth photo-sharing app Instagram is apparently feeling threatened by Israel’s Mobli; the 150-million-user platform blocked access to Mobli for its users on Tuesday. The move has caused a battle of the picture sharing apps, with both sides taking the offensive.

According to Globes, Instagram “decided to block Mobli users from downloading pictures from Instagram to Mobli at the press of a button, basically banning access to the applications programmable interface (API).” Both services allow users to post photos and video clips with various filters, although Mobli has less than a tenth of Instagram’s users, with just over 12 million using the app.

Both companies have since released statements on the matter. Instagram says “Instagram’s API guidelines make it clear that an application that replicates or attempts to replace the essential user experience violates our terms of use. We have a team dedicated to reviewing apps and enforcing our policies.”

Mobli responded by saying, “We respect every platform’s right to do with its platform as it sees fit. We believe in the user’s right to control his content and creation and therefore commit to continuing to enable users to do with their content as they see fit.”

The Israeli app has directly antagonized Instagram in their bid to become the top picture sharing app in the world, including a campaign to try and get the hashtag #mylastinstagram trending earlier this year.

Those who used the hashtag and abstained from Instagram and its “boring filters,” according to Mobli, were entered in a contest to win $100 000.

Now that’s marketing.

Mobli founder and CEO Moshe Hogeg said in an interview that “Instagram is an amazing company, and we should doff our caps to it ten times over. But the man has not been born who will say that Mobli’s technology is not better than Instagram’s, including its CEO.”