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Meta will nuke your Instagram account for basically anything, including for no reason at all. I have like 50 followers, 10 photos, and check my IG once every w

Meta will nuke your Instagram account for basically anything, including for no reason at all. I have like 50 followers, 10 photos, and check my IG once every week or two - haven't posted anything in months. Meta has banned me twice for unspecified policy violations (both times I had to send them a selfie and got reinstated, and there was no way to ask a human what these policies were). I suspect they'll ban/unban me again someday, oh well, it's Meta and I don't care, I just make sure not to use them for anything essential...!

nmltprand 3y ago
They want your selfies for facial recognition in order to track you better across the web and possibly resell that information to third parties. Also a great dataset for "AI" training, so your face can appear in modified form in laundered pictures.
- heywhatupboys 3y ago
  god save GDPR!
  - hulitu 3y ago
    > god save GDPR! When it will be enforced ...
- unmole 3y ago
  > They want your selfies for facial recognition in order to track you better across the web How on earth does facial recognition help with tracking someone across the web?
  - Santosh83 3y ago
    If you've uploaded photos of yourself on other services and those services have agreements among themselves to share each others' (anonymized?) data, then you can be tracked across services through, among other things, your photos.
    - unmole 3y ago
      Nice theory. But quite different from what the OP claimed.
  - nmltprand 3y ago
    If they get a match with a high school picture for "John Smith" from a school in an affluent area, they can adjust advertisements. If your face appears in a riot, they can resell the information to the government.
    - unmole 3y ago
      > If they get a match with a high school picture for "John Smith" from a school in an affluent area, they can adjust advertisements. Right, it's not like they gather location data and insist on real world names or buy data from brokers or use cookies. Facial recognition is the missing piece of in the puzzle! > If your face appears in a riot, they can resell the information to the government. It's not like governments have databases with photo identification.
      - mrguyorama 3y ago
        Being able to do it before has never stopped meta or google from wanting to do it harder and more effectively.
  - schuyler2d 3y ago
    Retail store outlet surveillance video used to advertise to past store visitors
    - josephd79 3y ago
      Similar to beacon advertising but instead of bluetooth it'll use your face. "Welcome back Jim!"
- wongarsu 3y ago
  I think they want selfies to enforce a one-account-per-person policy, to limit scraping. They already enforce phone verification, but there's plenty of ways around that (e.g. services that redirect verification SMS from hacked phones, or just buy phone-verified accounts from someone else). Facial recognition raises the bar and gives them extra confidence that two accounts are unrelated even if they have similar IPs/access patterns/whatever
  - justinclift 3y ago
    Guessing that'd really suck for anyone who seems to be a lookalike for someone else. :/
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      Twins are against the meta EULA
- o1y32 3y ago
  For this reason I decided to give up Instagram completely -- my account was flagged for whatever reason that I cannot possibly understand, and I would rather not use the service than give them my selfie
edandersen 3y ago
Someone probably wants your account removed to release your username.
whywhywhywhy 3y ago
> Meta will nuke your Instagram account for basically anything Opened the app last week and had to click through an accept gate warning me if I keep using "Scraping tools" I'll lose my account. The only "scraping" I've been doing is copying the direct image links and posting them to slack and my bookmarking service a few times a month. Insane to me that they're red in the face threatening me to lose my account over having the audacity to just share a direct image link. Garbage service.
- redeeman 3y ago
  > Insane to me that they're red in the face threatening me to lose my account over having the audacity to just share a direct image link. > > Garbage service. As long as you(and others) keep using it, theres really no reason for them not to
  - whywhywhywhy 3y ago
    What option do I have, I work as a designer so it's where my career networks.
    - redeeman 3y ago
      about the same option I have not to have linkedin, "its where my career networks". Does it have some kind of opportunity cost? it probably does. I know people that got exciting job offers that would not have happened had they not been on linkedin, so I would guess I have lost out to some. Its the price I pay. Not going on linkedin
- Terr_ 3y ago
  Is it possible you're using some ad/JS-blocker or DNS blacklist, and Meta's silly tools are interpreting that as proof of a headless scraping client? So far that's the best theory for why Reddit recently plunged my 13-year account into Kafkaesque censored limbo. And then did it again after a month of seeking answers on another account.
- dathinab 3y ago
tho2ioi234324 3y ago
[flagged]
- 0ct4via 3y ago
  [flagged]
dghughes 3y ago
I had the same experience. I barely use it but somewhat active mostly follow friends. Post a picture of food mainly. And one day banned/blocked for no reason other than some vague violation. Stupid selfie to unlock.
okillbite 3y ago
+1 they told me I could only unban by adding a mobile number, which I have no interest in giving them. It's fine! Certainly not a service I'd rely on.
- trymas 3y ago
  That's nothing. Meta may ask you to send them a picture of your government issued ID to be unbanned. They promise to delete images within 30 days (yeah they may delete images, but for sure not the metadata).
poizan42 3y ago
They banned my account that I have never posted anyting with less than a month after I created it for violating community guidelines. The message told me it was final and I had no way to appeal the decision. Apparently not posting anything can be a violation of their community guidelines.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
yomlica8 3y ago
They just want your government id. It makes their data set more valuable to advertisers. So the extort it out of you after you're partly invested in the platform. The security thing is just cover. That is why they often demand your phone number later too. If the demanded it during signup you'd know the deal you were making and would probably back out. So they do it after you're invested so you have something to lose instead of them.
- _nalply 3y ago
  Seems very plausible, but: [citation needed]
racked 3y ago
Had this too the other day. I am 100% certain that the ban is just a ploy to force you to give them more personal data. In my case it was a phone number, next up maybe a selfie.

nmltprand 3y ago

They want your selfies for facial recognition in order to track you better across the web and possibly resell that information to third parties. Also a great dataset for "AI" training, so your face can appear in modified form in laundered pictures.

heywhatupboys 3y ago
god save GDPR!
- hulitu 3y ago
  > god save GDPR! When it will be enforced ...
unmole 3y ago
> They want your selfies for facial recognition in order to track you better across the web How on earth does facial recognition help with tracking someone across the web?
- Santosh83 3y ago
  If you've uploaded photos of yourself on other services and those services have agreements among themselves to share each others' (anonymized?) data, then you can be tracked across services through, among other things, your photos.
  - unmole 3y ago
    Nice theory. But quite different from what the OP claimed.
- nmltprand 3y ago
  If they get a match with a high school picture for "John Smith" from a school in an affluent area, they can adjust advertisements. If your face appears in a riot, they can resell the information to the government.
  - unmole 3y ago
    > If they get a match with a high school picture for "John Smith" from a school in an affluent area, they can adjust advertisements. Right, it's not like they gather location data and insist on real world names or buy data from brokers or use cookies. Facial recognition is the missing piece of in the puzzle! > If your face appears in a riot, they can resell the information to the government. It's not like governments have databases with photo identification.
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      Being able to do it before has never stopped meta or google from wanting to do it harder and more effectively.
- schuyler2d 3y ago
  Retail store outlet surveillance video used to advertise to past store visitors
  - josephd79 3y ago
    Similar to beacon advertising but instead of bluetooth it'll use your face. "Welcome back Jim!"
wongarsu 3y ago
I think they want selfies to enforce a one-account-per-person policy, to limit scraping. They already enforce phone verification, but there's plenty of ways around that (e.g. services that redirect verification SMS from hacked phones, or just buy phone-verified accounts from someone else). Facial recognition raises the bar and gives them extra confidence that two accounts are unrelated even if they have similar IPs/access patterns/whatever
- justinclift 3y ago
  Guessing that'd really suck for anyone who seems to be a lookalike for someone else. :/
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    Twins are against the meta EULA
o1y32 3y ago
For this reason I decided to give up Instagram completely -- my account was flagged for whatever reason that I cannot possibly understand, and I would rather not use the service than give them my selfie

edandersen 3y ago

Someone probably wants your account removed to release your username.

whywhywhywhy 3y ago

> Meta will nuke your Instagram account for basically anything Opened the app last week and had to click through an accept gate warning me if I keep using "Scraping tools" I'll lose my account. The only "scraping" I've been doing is copying the direct image links and posting them to slack and my bookmarking service a few times a month. Insane to me that they're red in the face threatening me to lose my account over having the audacity to just share a direct image link. Garbage service.

redeeman 3y ago
> Insane to me that they're red in the face threatening me to lose my account over having the audacity to just share a direct image link. > > Garbage service. As long as you(and others) keep using it, theres really no reason for them not to
- whywhywhywhy 3y ago
  What option do I have, I work as a designer so it's where my career networks.
  - redeeman 3y ago
    about the same option I have not to have linkedin, "its where my career networks". Does it have some kind of opportunity cost? it probably does. I know people that got exciting job offers that would not have happened had they not been on linkedin, so I would guess I have lost out to some. Its the price I pay. Not going on linkedin
Terr_ 3y ago
Is it possible you're using some ad/JS-blocker or DNS blacklist, and Meta's silly tools are interpreting that as proof of a headless scraping client? So far that's the best theory for why Reddit recently plunged my 13-year account into Kafkaesque censored limbo. And then did it again after a month of seeking answers on another account.
dathinab 3y ago

tho2ioi234324 3y ago

[flagged]

0ct4via 3y ago
[flagged]

dghughes 3y ago

I had the same experience. I barely use it but somewhat active mostly follow friends. Post a picture of food mainly. And one day banned/blocked for no reason other than some vague violation. Stupid selfie to unlock.

okillbite 3y ago

+1 they told me I could only unban by adding a mobile number, which I have no interest in giving them. It's fine! Certainly not a service I'd rely on.

trymas 3y ago
That's nothing. Meta may ask you to send them a picture of your government issued ID to be unbanned. They promise to delete images within 30 days (yeah they may delete images, but for sure not the metadata).

poizan42 3y ago

They banned my account that I have never posted anyting with less than a month after I created it for violating community guidelines. The message told me it was final and I had no way to appeal the decision. Apparently not posting anything can be a violation of their community guidelines.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

yomlica8 3y ago

They just want your government id. It makes their data set more valuable to advertisers. So the extort it out of you after you're partly invested in the platform. The security thing is just cover. That is why they often demand your phone number later too. If the demanded it during signup you'd know the deal you were making and would probably back out. So they do it after you're invested so you have something to lose instead of them.

_nalply 3y ago
Seems very plausible, but: [citation needed]

racked 3y ago

Had this too the other day. I am 100% certain that the ban is just a ploy to force you to give them more personal data. In my case it was a phone number, next up maybe a selfie.