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Instagram’s top execs bail out

Kevin Systrom, pictured, and Mike Krieger have resigned as chief executive and chief technology officer of Instagram respectively, not giving reasons, according to the New York Times.

The Instagram co-founders are leaving the smartphone photo-sharing service bought by Facebook six years ago for a billion dollars, the New York Times reported late on Monday citing unnamed sources. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

In June, Instagram announced it passed a billion active users, and unveiled a new long-form video feature to attract “creators” like those on YouTube.

It became the fourth Facebook platform to eclipse the billion-user mark, including the namesake social network with more than two billion users, and the messaging applications WhatsApp and Messenger. Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012. Instagram has been a hit with young internet users, an audience Facebook is keen to keep in its fold.

The departures come as Facebook grapples with the worst crisis in its history, vilified for not more zealously guarding information users share at the leading online social network.

The Cambridge Analytica public relations disaster, in which Facebook admitted up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked by the British consultancy firm, came on top of criticism of the social network’s propensity to spread false information.

Facebook faces multiple inquiries from US and British regulators about the Cambridge Analytica user data scandal. –