Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Instagram blocked my new account what can I do?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 17 posts

Ask HN: Instagram blocked my new account what can I do?

#1

Post by coreyp_1 »

I'm baffled by this.

I created an account that's about me learning to draw. I did this pattern: uploaded a pic from my phone, then write the description at my laptop. For each pic, I discuss what I learned and the overall journey. Nothing crazy. Nothing controversial. Nothing illegal in the remotest sense. It was taking me 10-15 minutes per pic, so I wasn't slamming the server. No VPN. My family asked me to set this up so that they can see my art instead of me texting pics. I was just doing this on my day off because I don't have time to mess with it during the week....

It was flagged once, and I verified my contact info. It was flagged again an hour or so later, so they had me upload a face pic (which I did from their app). Then, an hour later, they say that it doesn't follow their community standards and that my account is permanently disabled.

It all happened today. Only 15-20 pics total (I don't know exactly how many, so it's probably actually less).

At this point, I can just vibe code a website for my artwork, but I would assume that what I am doing is exactly the thing that Instagram was intended for!

Re: Ask HN: Instagram blocked my new account what can I do?

#4

Post by brudgers »

Why not create a new profile on your existing account?

That’s the more standard practice with Instagram and Facebook.

Separate accounts almost certainly correlates with problematic behavior and your existing account is a basis for trust. In part because your stakes are higher.

While in this case, you didn’t lose hardly nothing.

Re: Ask HN: Instagram blocked my new account what can I do?

#5

Post by coreyp_1 »

al_borland wrote: post #2

My guess is that a new account making 20 posts in a single day is a red flag for spam behavior. It would probably be best to post at a more natural rate.

Well, I guess I'm forever lost as a user, since I'm banned for doing the very thing that they encourage... sharing my original content.

I disagree, though, that it's spam behavior. It's "well, it's time to set up my account" behavior.

I mean, it's not like they could provide for a human to review after they asked for me to take a selfie. A selfie that shows the same person as the one that has used the facebook account with the same email address and face for over a decade... No, that's definitely asking too much. Or perhaps informing the user of concerning behavior, because all that they did was point to "community standards", which said nothing about what I was doing.

Apologies... my snark is not directed at you. It's just the exasperation towards a system that makes actual human participation impossible, while assuring that bots are the only ones who can get something done and yet stay under the radar.

Re: Ask HN: Instagram blocked my new account what can I do?

#6

Post by coreyp_1 »

evil-olive wrote: post #3

> It all happened today. Only 15-20 pics total think about the distribution for "number of pictures a new Instagram user posts on their first day" then think of how far of an outlier your behavior was.

I wouldn't know. I only know what it's like to (1) set up an account of any type, which usually requires quite a bit of initial activity, followed later by (2) decreased ongoing maintenance.

But, whatever. They set up an automated system that weeded out a human while letting bots run rampant.

Maybe we need a page about "falsehoods programmers believe about human behavior", but they wouldn't read it. :/

Re: Ask HN: Instagram blocked my new account what can I do?

#7

Post by fuzzfactor »

coreyp_1 wrote: post #5
al_borland wrote: post #2

My guess is that a new account making 20 posts in a single day is a red flag for spam behavior. It would probably be best to post at a more natural rate.

Well, I guess I'm forever lost as a user, since I'm banned for doing the very thing that they encourage... sharing my original content. I disagree, though, that it's spam behavior. It's "well, it's time to set up my account" behavior. I mean, it's not like they could provide for a human to review after they asked for me to take a selfie. A selfie that shows the same person as the one that has used the facebook accoun…

>what I am doing is exactly the thing that Instagram was intended for!

Wasn't that before Facebook took over the company?

>what can I do?

Stay as far away from Meta as possible to avoid further enshittification?

Re: Ask HN: Instagram blocked my new account what can I do?

#8

Post by coreyp_1 »

brudgers wrote: post #4

Why not create a new profile on your existing account? That’s the more standard practice with Instagram and Facebook. Separate accounts almost certainly correlates with problematic behavior and your existing account is a basis for trust. In part because your stakes are higher. While in this case, you didn’t lose hardly nothing.

What do you mean by my "existing account"? I didn't have an instagram account before today.

But, as a general rule, I keep all of my accounts separate. There's too many horror stories of a person getting locked out of one account, and then they can't do anything else.

Separate accounts are the only safe option.

I think my takeaway on this is just that Instagram isn't worth the hassle. I did lose the write-ups that I did for my pictures, though (which is why my upload pace was so slow).

Re: Ask HN: Instagram blocked my new account what can I do?

#9

Post by coreyp_1 »

fuzzfactor wrote: post #7
coreyp_1 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I guess I'm forever lost as a user, since I'm banned for doing the very thing that they encourage... sharing my original content. I disagree, though, that it's spam behavior. It's "well, it's time to set up my account" behavior. I mean, it's not like they could provide for a human to review after they asked for me to take a selfie. A selfie that shows the same person as the one that has used the facebook accoun…

>what I am doing is exactly the thing that Instagram was intended for! Wasn't that before Facebook took over the company? >what can I do? Stay as far away from Meta as possible to avoid further enshittification?

>Stay away...

LOL Exactly!!!

I was only doing it because my family asked me to. Meta killed that, too, I guess.

Post reply on HN