There was a bit of a panic earlier when Instagram users attempted to log into their accounts, only to find out that they were put on punishment by the platform. Glitches across social media are common as tech issues arise, but when thousands of people began to storm Twitter with complaints, it was clear this was a major mix-up.
According to users, they were confronted with a message that stated their accounts were suspended for 30 days.
That wasn't all; the alert also mentioned that the accounts would be permanently suspended if they didn't dispute the allegation. When users attempted to walk through denying the claim, Instagram never followed through with the automated security codes that were supposed to be sent to email addresses or texted to their mobile phones.
"We're aware that some of you are having issues accessing your Instagram account," Instagram's PR Twitter account shared. "We're looking into it and apologize for the inconvenience."
They seemed to correct their mistake rather quickly, and as thousands of relieved IG users return to the platform, there are still conversations being had about Instagram's bot problem. For years, people have complained about scammers stealing their identities, pornography bots in Stories or flooding comments, or fake profiles and spam accounts cluttering spaces.
Many times, when people report these accounts, IG doesn't do anything about it because they determine that these fake accounts haven't violated their guidelines.
Some influencers and celebrities were upset, as well, but for different reasons—it seems that several of them lost thousands of followers, and while real accounts were reinstated, we should see those follower numbers continue to drop as IG gets rid of the unwanted profiles. Today's bug is being attributed to an "outage," but not everyone believes that it was so simple.
We'll keep you updated as Meta offers new updates about the glitch. Was your account one of the thousands suspended this morning? Let us know in the comments.