San Francisco, Oct 2 : Facebook has appointed Adam Mosseri, Vice President of Product, as new head of its photo-sharing app Instagram.

Mosseri replaces Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger who abruptly announced their departure in September.

"We are thrilled to hand over the reins to a product leader with a strong design background and a focus on craft and simplicity, as well as a deep understanding of the importance of community," Systrom and Krieger wrote in a blog post late on Monday.

Mosseri began his career as a designer, managed his own design consultancy, and then joined the Facebook design team in 2008.

He moved from design into product management, and spent time working on Mobile then News Feed and most recently, to Instagram.

In the new role, he will oversee all functions of the business and will recruit a new executive team, including a head of engineering, head of product and head of operations.

"We remain excited for the future of Instagram in the coming years as we transition from being leaders at Instagram to being just two users in a billion," the co-founders said.

Instagram co-founders resigned at a time when social media platforms, including Facebook were facing intense scrutiny over the spread of fake news and sinister campaigns.

Founded in 2010, Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012.

Instagram's meteoric rise continued after the acquisition, dwarfing the stagnant growth rates of Snapchat and Facebook.

"We've grown from 13 people to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over one billion. We're now ready for our next chapter," the co-founders said.

 

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Vijayapura (Karnataka) (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his attack on the grand old party, saying he is scared and may even shed tears on the stage.

“You have heard the Prime Minister’s speeches. He is scared. It’s possible that he may shed tears on stage,” Gandhi said addressing a public gathering in this district headquarters town in the party-governed State.

Modi has targeted the Congress on a variety of issues in recent campaign rallies, including "mangalsutra", "redistribution of wealth" and "inheritance tax" charges.

The former Congress chief accused Modi of 'diverting public attention' through various means.

“Modi tries to divert your attention. Sometimes he talks about China and Pakistan, and sometimes he will make you beat plates and ask you to switch on the torch light of your mobile phones,” Gandhi said.

He pointed out that there are three to four core issues in India including poverty, unemployment and price rise.

Gandhi claimed that only Congress can eradicate unemployment, contain price rise and give people their due share.

“Modi has only snatched money from poor people. He has made some billionaires. There are 22 people who have wealth equivalent to the 70 crore people of the country. Just one per cent people are controlling 40 per cent of the wealth of the nation,” he alleged.

Gandhi said in the present scheme of things, there is "no scope" for Dalits, OBCs, tribals, minorities and poor general category people.

“I will just tell you a clear thing in a simple one line. The wealth Modi has given to those billionaires, the same money we are going to give to the poor people of the country,” he added.

The Congress leader also promised the youth that his party will scrap the ‘Agniveer’ scheme if it is voted to power.

He dubbed the ‘Agniveer’ scheme in the armed forces offering three years services to the youth from 18 years to 21 years as an insult to the Army and soldiers.

“Narendra Modi snatched the Army jobs from the youth of India. He brought the Agniveer scheme, which is an insult to the Indian Army and soldiers. We will scrap it,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi charged Modi with imposing a faulty GST where he introduced five different types of tax, which are hefty.

Alleging that the PM was doing injustice to Karnataka, he said the Congress will change the GST and rectify the injustice meted out to the people of the state.

According to Gandhi, the ongoing Lok Sabha election was not general in nature. “It is not an election that used to happen earlier because for the first time in the history of India, a party and a person want to destroy the Constitution and democracy."