No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram

by Sarah Frier

This book is an effort to bring you the definitive inside story of Instagram. It would not have been possible without the hundreds of people—current and former employees, executives and others who built their careers around the app, as well as competitors—who volunteered their time and shared memories they’ve never shared with a journalist before. Instagram’s founders spoke with me both together and separately over several years. Facebook Inc. offered more than two dozen sit-down interviews with current staff and executives, including the current head of Instagram, even after the founders departed their company. Despite tensions between the founders and their acquirer, and despite the flurry of critical stories I was writing about Facebook as a journalist for Bloomberg News, everyone agreed it was important to have this book be as accurate as possible. When potential sources forwarded my outreach to either the founders or the company, asking if it was okay to talk to me, they were generally told yes, even though both the founders and the company knew they would have no control over the ultimate content of this book. I commend them for that decision.