Skip to main content

Facebook and Instagram are demanding this app change its name

Lawyers representing Instagram and its parent company Facebook are ordering British anti-littering app “Littergram” change its name.

The app’s owner Danny Lucas claims he has been issued a deadline to ensure Littergram no longer contains the disputed “gram” in its title, which lawyers claim resembles their clients’ popular app.

Recommended Videos

Lucas, who was first contacted by UK law firm Bristows on behalf of Facebook in April, now has until Friday to rebrand his app. Instagram, which currently boasts 500 million users, claims the use of “gram” in the app’s title could damage its product.

Despite sharing some functions (and the disputed name), the gulf between the popularity of the respective apps couldn’t be greater. Littergram was launched by Lucas in 2015 in an attempt to highlight the damaging effects of litter on its local environment, and to discourage wanton waste. Like Instagram, the app contains social photo-sharing features, with an emphasis on capturing and geotagging images of litter in order to report them to local councils. Facebook is also reportedly contesting the app’s mixture of photography with social sharing, notes the Guardian.

Lucas posted a plea to Mark Zuckerberg in the form of a YouTube video in April. In the clip, Lucas claims that he received a “heavy-handed” letter from Facebook’s lawyers insisting that he change his brand as it is seen “as a threat to the Instagram app.”

He directly addresses the Facebook CEO by appealing to his philanthropic side. “I would like to hope that with your own personal ambitions to help our planet, that instead of spending money on lawyers and eliminating great causes such as Littergram, you will join forces with me and take this forward,” states Lucas.

The social network claims that it has not filed a lawsuit against the app, and has “merely taken steps to object to [its] registration of the name “Littergram” as a trademark.” Lucas, however, claims he explicitly did as Facebook ordered, but has still been issued the name-change deadline.

We reached out to Facebook, but did not immediately receive a response.

Saqib Shah
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
Facebook vows to restrict news access in Canada
facebook hacked

Meta says it will remove access to news content on Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada after the nation’s lawmakers passed legislation designed to force internet giants that also include Google to pay news publishers for hosting their content.

The Online News Act was approved by the Senate upper chamber on Thursday and is set to be formally adopted soon. The law is designed to offer support for news organizations that have been struggling with vastly reduced ad revenue in the internet age.

Read more
Meta unveils paid verification service for Instagram and Facebook users
Mark Zuckurburg introduces Facebook's new name, Meta.

Meta is introducing a paid verification service for folks on Facebook and Instagram.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, unveiled the new service in an online message on Saturday. Meta Verified will launch first in Australia and New Zealand before being rolled out more widely.

Read more
Trump allowed to return to Facebook and Instagram
Trump stylized image

Meta is ending its suspension of Donald Trump on Facebook and Instagram, allowing the former president to start posting again as he eyes a return to the White House via the 2024 election.

Trump was suspended indefinitely from the social media sites shortly after the riots at the Capitol in January 2021.

Read more