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My Instagram (IG) account was recently suspended due to being flagged for "suspicious activity" and although I was able to successfully appeal it and get my account restored, the process was opaque (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by KickassWomen@lemmy.world to c/kickasswomen@lemmy.world

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Preceding the suspension of my account, I was presented with a prompt relaying that my account was exhibiting "suspicious activity" just about every time I logged in. Instead of making specific claims about how I was violating IG's rules, I was instead linked to IG's Terms of Use—IG never told me which term I had specifically violated.

Leaving me to guess on my own as to why I was receiving these prompts, I decided to stop using my VPN and IG Downloader while logged on to IG (note: I did not—and do not—steal anyone's content; I only post content belonging to women who have given me their consent). Nevertheless, my account was still suspended and no specific reasons were given by IG.

When I appealed the suspension, I was not given the option to write a defense for myself, explaining why my account should be unsuspended and restored to normal function. Instead, IG only gave me the option of pressing the Appeal button—that's it!

So to summarize: IG flagged my account for "suspicious activity" but did not elaborate as to what this activity was, then IG gave me the option to appeal the suspension of my account but did not allow me to write a defense against their vague accusation. At no point in this process did I have the power to defend myself and explain my actions; all I could do was press a button.

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[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The unfortunate reality is that all these big companies work like that now; they don't want to pay people to moderate manually, so they have all that be run by automated processes that work more to sweep away people the algorithm thinks are likely to be a problem somehow rather than enforcing specific rules. At various times I've heard of content on Instagram I might be interested in, but they don't make it accessible without an account, I'm not willing to make an account or install the app and it sounds like they actively prevent access to third party software so I just gave up.

Maybe it's possible your ban had to do with your pattern of use of the platform; like if you were messaging a bunch of people asking for permission to share their photos, the algorithm may have taken issue with the similarity, spread and frequency of your requests without considering their content or purpose. Ultimately though who knows. Reminds me of when I was banned from Facebook, of course they aren't saying why and of course they aren't giving any coherent response, you can only guess.

[–] KickassWomen@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it’s possible your ban had to do with your pattern of use of the platform; like if you were messaging a bunch of people asking for permission to share their photos, the algorithm may have taken issue with the similarity, spread and frequency of your requests without considering their content or purpose

I think that this along with using a VPN and an IG downloader is likely what's setting the algorithm off. Still, I didn't break any rules. Afaik there are no rules explicitly banning the use of VPNs and IG downloaders, nor are there any rules prohibiting messaging people.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah but as you see they aren't about rules, so the best anyone can do is try to puzzle out how to avoid making the bots angry.

[–] WiseWoodchuck@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I refuse to install IG on my phone and instead use Firefox on Android. I keep getting warning messages about suspicious activity on my account. I've even changed my password to make sure nothing else is using my account. I think their bot detection or something similar keeps flagging my sessions. I mostly lurk on IG but I can tell you I am quite human.

[–] KickassWomen@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I’ve even changed my password to make sure nothing else is using my account

Same, I changed my password around 5-6 times but the algorithm kept flagging my account.

[–] jdnewmil@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So here you are, on a competing platform. Maybe this really is a better environment to stay in? It is indeed different than IG. You don't expect IG to pay any attention to your post here, right?

[–] KickassWomen@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's just an FYI.

People should know about IG's opaque and unfair appeals process.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Facebook/meta is garbage who knew

[–] KickassWomen@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

While this is not strictly related to this sub, it is relevant because I use my IG account to get content for this community.

Lastly, IG's opaque & unfair appeals process should be a concern for everyone—no organization should be able to suspend or delete anyone's account without giving specific reasons for doing so and the accused party should be given the opportunity to defend themselves, instead of only being given the choice of pressing a button.