Why did Facebook make Instagram evil?

If you’re one of those who almost deleted your Instagram account but did not because you figured you’d give them one last chance to stop leaning towards the dark side, the latest round of Facebook/Instagram controversy should be enough to push you over the edge. As has been widely covered, Instagram and Facebook are locking people out of their accounts and requiring government issued photo IDs to get back into them. The story isn’t the fact that they’re doing this; Facebook has been known to have zero concern for their users and a distinct willingness to push their social media addiction to the limits. The real story here and the conspiratorial question that isn’t being asked is, “Why?”

This absolutely cannot be simply a way to keep things legitimate or defend against terms of service violations. Facebook has a policy of requiring users to put in their accurate personal data, but Instagram does not. If we rule out simple stupidity and assume that it’s not an exercise in making the company work harder to keep their users from disappearing, then it comes down to something more sinister.

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

As crazy as it will certainly sound, it’s possible that this is a ploy be the government to “soften us up” for the continued extension of Facebook’s entry into our personal lives. As a society, we are no longer accustomed to privacy. It’s being taken away from us behind the scenes, but the rapid growth of social media in general and Facebook in particular has turned millions into willingly non-private individuals. We share more information about ourselves, our friends/family, our activities, and our businesses on Facebook than the government could ever hope to gain through force, mandate, or spying. We spy on each other unwittingly and report it to the rest of the world.

Even with the oversharing nature of modern day society, it is still not accelerating quickly enough. Whatever plans they have in store for us, whether it’s a national digital identification, mandatory RFID chips, or something else entirely, the need to get us to accept a loss of privacy and acknowledge the authority of out digital overlords is growing. They need us to readily obey. It starts with actions like these, the ones that make no sense at all to rational humans because we haven’t a clue about the true nature of our circumstance.

It’s pure insanity, I know. Even writing this I feel hesitation in sending the message out. What if it’s worse than I even believe? What if the government isn’t behind this. What if it’s more sinister than that? Whatever is happening, we’ll learn more in the near future. It could be days. It could be years. The timetable is completely unknown. The only thing we know with near certainty is that there is a timetable. Keep your eyes open and be mindful of what’s happening. When whatever it is gets rolling, it will do so with haste. Remain diligent.