*By Kavitha Shastry* Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who launched photo-sharing app Instagram in 2010, are stepping down, reportedly amid rising tensions with Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook ($FB), which now owns the company. Systrom, Instagram's CEO, announced the pair's departure after a New York Times report Monday night, saying they were "now ready for our next chapter." "We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again," Systrom said in a [statement](https://instagram-press.com/blog/2018/09/24/statement-from-kevin-systrom-instagram-co-founder-and-ceo/) posted on Instagram's website. "Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do." The departure of Systrom and Krieger, who served as the unit's chief technology officer, is the latest blow to Facebook, which is still grappling with the effects of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and faces calls to better police its platform both for inappropriate content and for interference by foreign governments. While the company seemed to weather the storm at first ー shares hit an all-time high in late July ー investors seem to be pulling back. In the last earnings call, CFO David Wehner admitted that revenue growth would decline as the company implements measures to protect user privacy. The stock is down about 25 percent since. Reports suggest Systrom and Krieger clashed with Zuckerberg, particularly over Instagram's autonomy. In May, Chris Cox, the head of the company's main app, was put in charge of all apps, including Instagram, and Adam Mosseri, former VP of News Feed, became Instagram's head of product. News site The Information [reported](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/facebook-likely-to-name-mosseri-to-lead-instagram) Tuesday that Mosseri would likely takeover the unit. This isn't the first report of tensions between Zuckerberg and his deputies this year ー in April Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 for $19 billion, resigned apparently due to disagreements about data privacy and monetizing the app. Instagram has been a bright spot in Facebook's portfolio. Since being acquired in 2012 for a relatively bargain price of $1 billion, it's grown its base from about 30 million monthly active users to a billion as of June.
