Dear Instagram

Dear Instagram,

This may come as a shock to you, but I’m a real person. I’m not a bot. I’m not a product. I’m not even an account. I’m a living, breathing human person. 

To you, I’m expendable. This, you’ve made very clear.

You were originally created for people to share their photography. While that changed and evolved and morphed into something else over the years, I remained loyal. Instagram was my app. I grew my little corner of the internet slowly and, while it never became anything large or influential in your eyes, it was still mine. And, I cared about it. This place where I shared my life and enjoyed creating content for my design business and blog.

Weeks ago, my account was “disabled for violating our terms.” There was no warning. One day I was simply no longer able to log in. When I clicked your “learn more” link, I was led to a page on your Help Center that was titled “Learn more about counterfeit goods” … which led me to believe that my account was somehow, mistakenly, flagged for promoting counterfeit goods. I understand why this would be against your terms and I support that. However, when a bot is flagging accounts, it seems as if mistakes could happen fairly easily. I assumed that’s what had happened to me.

It felt a bit extreme to immediately suspend an account (especially an account that has never before been flagged for violating any terms) without any type of warning or questioning. Shouldn’t I have been given a warning?

Maybe my account was hacked? I could only wonder at what might have happened.

Maybe something caught the attention of a bot … a word or expression that I used, possibly? The thing is. I don’t know. I don’t know what happened. I likely won’t ever know. I’m left to simply guess because no information was shared or provided and I had no way to log-in to see if anything looked amiss or different. I had no opportunity to check or to back up my content. Content that was important to me. That was a blow, Instagram. It felt like a punch in the gut.

The next problematic thing that occurred was that I had no way to reach anyone. You (Insta), it seems, are completely locked down. I assume you want it this way. To be unreachable. I tried to email … but your support email address is no longer active. I tried to call, but the recording says that calls will not be returned. The absolutely only thing that I could do was to submit an appeal through the Help Center and wait. But, how long would I need to wait? With no response, that remained unclear. It’s all very, very vague. But one thing is clear … you do not care about us. We, the millions of people that make up your app, that play your strange little algorithm game .. we do not matter to you.

Eventually, one full week after my Instagram account was disabled, I did receive a response to an appeal. That emailed response stated,  “Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention. In certain circumstances, we take targeted actions on accounts that we believe are selling or promoting counterfeits, which is not allowed on Instagram. Your account was incorrectly identified and removed on that basis. Based on the information you provided, we have restored your account. We understand that action to resolve this matter.” 

This response was obviously a canned reply and provided no additional information, but still I felt relieved. That relief was extremely short-lived when I discovered that my account had not actually been restored. I was still unable to log in and the same error message continued to pop up stating “your account has been disabled …” 

Days continued to pass. I continued to try and fail to reach anyone at Instagram. Is everything automated? Do you employ any people at all? I was no longer able to submit any appeals as I began receiving  a “we cannot find record of user ID that you entered” when I would try. So, while an email had arrived stating that my account would be restored … it never was and there was nothing I could do and no one that I could talk to.

Another response rolled in eventually … but it was even more cryptic and confusing …

“Thanks for contacting us. We regret to inform you that we are unable to restore your account.  Following our review of your appeal, we continue to believe that your account was used to sell or promote counterfeit goods, which is not allowed on Insta. The manufacture, promotion or sale of a counterfeit good is a type of trademark infringement that is illegal in most countries because it’s harmful to consumers, trademark owners and honest sellers. You can learn more about intellectual property in the Help Center.” 

I was at a loss. I thought my appeal was approved, but my account simply hadn’t been restored and then … my appeal wasn’t approved?! And, the lack of information was beyond frustrating. The Help Center was, in fact, not helpful at all. I did not need to re-read your information about intellectual property rights. I needed to know what was happening with MY account. Did you think my account had been hacked? Why did you think my account was being used to sell counterfeit goods?! I knew that I wasn’t at fault, but with so little information shared … I remained in the dark about what you were seeing on your end that appeared to violate terms.

And, here I sit. No answers. Still. No way to contact anyone. Still. 

Without a warning. Without a chance. 

My account is small in size as far as you’re concerned (around 1,500 followers). It doesn’t matter to you. You can close my account and feel that you’ve lost nothing. You can delete me without another thought … without a thought at all. 

But, it matters to me. 

My design business is growing here. My blog readers are here. Without hesitation, you had the ability to simply shut me down. Shut me out. 

It matters. It matters to the people, like me, who are growing something on your app. 

We aren’t bots. We aren’t hackers. We are people. But, you’ve forgotten that. 

And, you simply don’t care.

Thank you for your time, 

Lori Blair

(@ellebeelovely … or the account formerly known as @ellebeelovely)