Project Voldemort: Instagram reportedly threatened 'verified' status of influencers who shared Snapchat links

Facebook's rivals are spilling the tea to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the social media giant's hardball tactics.

A story in Monday's Wall Street Journal outlines Snapchat's anger and frustration over how Facebook allegedly tried to suppress competition. It was so bad, Snap named an internal document listing its Facebook-related grievances as "Project Voldemort."

Perhaps the pettiest example of Facebook attempting to squash Snap is the claim that Instagram reps went so far as to pressure many of the platform's influencers to stop posting Snapchat content on their Instagram feed — and some were threatened with losing their oh-so-coveted "verified" status if they kept it up.

Snap also believed that Instagram was blocking Snapchat-related content — photos and videos using Snapchat filters, as well as the #snapchat hashtag — from Instagram's search and "explore" tab.

And, ultimately, Instagram blocked users from adding links to their Snapchat profiles (and WhatsApp competitor Telegram) within the platform.

We've reached out to Facebook for more information.

Keep in mind, Snapchat already had plenty of reasons to be pissed at Facebook. In August 2016, Instagram released its Snapchat clone, Stories. That feature also rolled out on Facebook just a few months later.

The rip-off was so blatant that, in March 2019, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom admitted that, yep, he straight up stole the idea for Instagram Stories from Snapchat.

The idea that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery doesn't go very far in Silicon Valley (see: Uber founder Travis Kalanick's bloodlust to destroy Lyft). So it's not a surprise that Snap has been stewing over this for awhile.

There's plenty more in the WSJ story, including how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg allegedly liked to buy up smaller companies he saw as competitors (hello, WhatsApp!) as well as Facebook's acquisition of Israeli analytic startup Onavo. Tools from Onavo allegedly allowed Facebook to quietly track how often and long users utilized competing apps.

When your competition views you as the equivalent of Voldemort, the most evil wizard of all time, it shouldn't be a surprise when they eventually come after you.