Recently, social media giant Facebook acquired the well-known GIF-making and sharing website Giphy for $400 million, with a view to integrating the massive GIF library into Instagram and other Facebook apps.
Recently, Facebook launched Messenger Rooms, its new group video chat service, supporting video calls with up to 50 participants with no time limits on call length. It was seen as a competitor to Zoom videoconferencing platform that had seen massive spike in its usage during global lockdown.
And, as it happens, Zoom has now dropped Giphy from its chat feature.
Thoug the company has clarified it is only a temporary move, sceptics remain unconvinced. They see the dark shadow of Facebook in the background.
Zoom in a blog said: "To ensure strong privacy protection for users, we’ve temporarily removed the GIPHY integration in Zoom Chat. Once additional technical and security measures have been deployed, we will re-enable the feature."
- Facebook buys top GIF site Giphy for $400m and will add it to Instagram
- Brace yourself: WhatsApp now supports Giphy GIF search
- Zoom gets a new rival as Facebook Messenger Rooms launches 50-way video calls
Zoom, which is under fire for its own security issues, has also tweaked a lot of features including limiting screen sharing, changing muting and unmuting functions, and restricting logging in to meetings from multiple devices.
Zoom's move to remove Giphy, albeit only for the time being, may have something to do with the latter's API.
Giphy had always mainatained that its API did not have access to users’ data. But Facebook's competitors are understandably a bit wary about integrating it on their platforms now that Facebook is its minder.
What Is #Facebook Going To Do With 700 Million #Giphy Users’ Data? https://t.co/M9QL6ujN6P by @@KateOflahertyMay 26, 2020
Giphy has asserted regulalrly that it did not maintain users' data or resorted to tracking pixels, cookies, or any other embedded mechanisms in Giphy’s GIFs or stickers.
But Facebook's competitors are not ready to take a chance. The question why would Facebook invest so much money in a GIF-making company is asked by many.
The answer to it is mostly not very flattering to the image of Facebook.
