For several weeks now, Instagram users have been complaining about a significant increase in the number of accounts being falsely blocked or suspended. Many suspect, without direct evidence, that these problems may be related to the use of artificial intelligence for automation.
Meta, which was contacted for comment, has not yet made an official statement.
According to a growing number of reports on social media, including on sites such as Reddit and X, Instagram users are reporting that their accounts have been blocked even though they did not violate the company’s terms of service or other policies. Furthermore, when they appealed to have their accounts reviewed, some claimed to have received no response.
Others pointed out that they had no other way to directly contact a member of the Meta support team and did not know what to do next.
“I’ve already filed several appeals, uploaded my ID, and tried to contact Meta through all official channels, but I’m being completely ignored. It feels like I’m screaming into a void,” wrote one Reddit user (u/Dyrovicious) about his personal Instagram account being blocked.
(It’s worth noting that Meta offers subscriptions to verified accounts for authors and companies that offer priority access to customer service).
The top posts on Reddit’s Instagram community are almost entirely devoted to the wave of bans, and have been for several weeks. On X, users are flooding Instagram’s responses with pleas for the company to do something about the account suspensions or at least acknowledge the problem publicly. A petition on the Change.org website against the bans currently has more than 4,000 signatures.
The situation has become so tense that some are threatening to file a class action lawsuit against Meta over the bans.
Of course, large internet companies inevitably face a certain number of false positives due to the fact that they rely on automated moderation systems that occasionally make mistakes. However, an excessive number of bans is something that has come under particular scrutiny recently, and many immediately suspect that artificial intelligence may be to blame.
For example, Pinterest faced a similar problem of mass bans earlier this year when users complained that their actions and posts did not violate the company’s policies. One group of users also threatened legal action over the bans. In May, Pinterest finally admitted that the massive bans were a mistake caused by an “internal error” but did not give an exact reason. The company claimed that the error was not related to artificial intelligence moderation.
In the case of Instagram, the problems affect not only personal use of the app, but also people’s livelihoods, as the massive bans have affected businesses as well.
“This is my livelihood, my full-time job. I rely heavily on Instagram to find potential clients,” one Reddit user (u/Paigejust) wrote about his suspension.
“This ban has directly impacted my business and all the hard work and branding I’ve spent countless hours putting into my business, my gym, and my students,” a gym owner shared on Reddit (u/CourtShaw).
Without access to the company’s internal data, it is difficult to tell from the outside whether the recent bans are an increase in the number of typical false positives or not. To date, Meta has not publicly acknowledged the problem.
In addition, some affected Instagram users reported that they were wrongly banned for serious offenses, including child sexual exploitation (CSE). They noted that this accusation is destroying their careers and reputations, which is of great concern to them.
