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Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

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Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#51
post #15

Some friends roped me into signing up to Instagram, so I did. I got to the sign in process and "an error occurred". I tried to login and it said "account does not exist", but I tried to re-sign up, and it said "This account already exists". I emailed them for help but they said I had to post a photo of myself holding a pad with my username on it. Which, fair enough, but giving away my face to a faceless corporation i…

Similar story. I used a real-life name/surname (just not my real one), matched with a similar real email. I never got in. I never bothered. Now when I see (before COVID) people on the train tapping like junkies on the "stories" I smirk and think how lucky I was to avoid this mindfuck.

You being entertained on the train by judging people on their phones sounds hardly more valuable as a hobby than them being entertained by judging people in instagram stories.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#52
I have not been able to recover my account in about 3 years.

Every time I follow the steps to report the issue, I am linked back to the main troubleshooting start page where the process restarts a la Groundhog Day.

It was hacked and taken over by a Russian account who subsequently realized I have no friends of consequence and so abandoned it. But every single time I try to go through the official channels to recover the account I cannot!

Instagram doesn't care about account recovery because it boosts internal metrics when people make new accounts. I wish concerns like mine were prioritized rather than influencers who need a new way to ask for money from their followers.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#53
post #5

Part of me believes that this is actually to get folks that left instagram back on the platform.

It reads to me more like a disincentive to avoid participating on the platform. Twitter did this recently as well. You can view a simple timeline, but clicking on anything will require you register or log in.

I'm split on this, but I'm far more erring on the side of reclassifying social media as a utility. There's simply no way for someone to protect themselves from criminal activity (bullying, identity theft, fraud, libel/slander, terrorism) on these platforms without them having to expose their PPI to and participate on each platform. The same for police and the FBI. And that concerns me because Twitter and Facebook have become breeding grounds for illegal activity, covering everything from pedophilia to terrorism. The last thing we need is a social media company going Apple a-la refusing to break the encryption on an iPhone 5C used to facilitate a serious crime.

Justine Sacco was in 2014. And it took Justine over two years to find employment after a random user spam-retweeted her post. So, we've had six more years for these platforms to fester the worst of the worst of our society. Today, you can do what Zoe Quinn did: Post a fabricated claim of sexual abuse and violence committed willfully by someone she knew, and only few publicly knew, had a serious mental disorder and history of self-harm, and then actively enlist support to limit distribution of evidence proving the fabrication and prior knowledge, and eventually evade prosecution when that person, Alec Holowka, commits suicide after being blocked through several attempts to clear his name.

I apologize for the rant. That's not the point of your comment or my reply. But I hope this at least demonstrates why I want Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, etc. to be under government thumb. Without it, we're going to see more criminal activism and behavior protected for one demographic but not another because the only metric for Twitter or Facebook or IG policy is revenue.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#54
post #15

Some friends roped me into signing up to Instagram, so I did. I got to the sign in process and "an error occurred". I tried to login and it said "account does not exist", but I tried to re-sign up, and it said "This account already exists". I emailed them for help but they said I had to post a photo of myself holding a pad with my username on it. Which, fair enough, but giving away my face to a faceless corporation i…

same thing happened to me except I didn't bother going through support. I dug a little more a few years later and it turns out someone had put my email address in their account although they had signed up and logged in via phone number so it didn't matter that they didn't have access to the email associated with the account. I was able to take over the account since my email was associated with it. I wiped the pictur…

That sounds like an unnecessarily aggressive way to handle that. It certainly could have been an honest mistake on the part of the user who owned that account. Why not just change the email address on the account?

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#56
post #6

Yet another reason to move away from Instagram. I’m toying with using RSSHub + ttrss to get content from my favourite Instagram accounts in my RSS reader. I hope this doesn’t break that.

Smart! I will have to look into a solution like this. I want to follow all the artists and creators on Instagram but I don't want to be swamped with all the other inanity.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#57

I believe any website that is behind the walled garden should be deindexed by Google and other search engines. Whether it's a newspaper, Q/A websites, social media, or anything else. It's only fair. When users search for something, they should only get results of web pages whose content is accessible to all without having to sign up for an account.

Google should be returning the highest quality results. If thats a paywalled newspaper, it should not be excluded.

However, I do think some kind of tag, similar to [AD] could appear next to the result, warning you not to click it, [PW] or [LW] for paywall and loginwall.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#58
post #15

Some friends roped me into signing up to Instagram, so I did. I got to the sign in process and "an error occurred". I tried to login and it said "account does not exist", but I tried to re-sign up, and it said "This account already exists". I emailed them for help but they said I had to post a photo of myself holding a pad with my username on it. Which, fair enough, but giving away my face to a faceless corporation i…

Similar situation,a bit different: I had an user agent activated on my laptop (yeah, I wanted to create an Insta account from my laptop)and after 3 failed attempt my account was blocked for shady interaction. I had to contact the customer support and send them a picture with me with a code number they gave me. Yes...

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not a customer. You are a money maker. You are a product.

We are the subject. Product is the data extracted out of us.

I like to think we are the vendor :-)

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#60
post #16

I hate these walled apps. Having to log in is maddening. Especially Facebook, especially right now... As a photographer, I have to have some sort of IG presence but I absolutely hate the app, the UX and the whole enchilada. Its the worst viewing experience possible for good photos and yet is the medium of choice for so many... I miss the old web.

Have you given PixelFed a shot?
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