Instagram users say their accounts are STILL suspended – 10 hours after the app claimed to resolve a mystery bug behind the outage
- Weird Instagram bug has been blocking users from their accounts since Monday
- Instagram said it had resolved the problem and apologised to affected users
- But the ‘bug’ is still causing havoc by suspending people without good reason
Outage chaos at Instagram appears to be continuing into a second day, despite the social media platform saying the issues have been fixed.
As of Tuesday morning, multiple Instagram users are still complaining that they’ve been ‘suspended’ from their account for no good reason.
This is despite Instagram claiming at 22:00 GMT on Monday night, more than 10 hours ago, that the problem had been resolved.
‘We’ve resolved this bug now – it was causing people in different parts of the world to have issues accessing their accounts and caused a temporary change for some in number of followers. Sorry!’ Instagram posted to Twitter.
The fact the bug is still having an effect on Instagram users suggests the platform is yet to properly fix it at all.
MailOnline has contacted Meta, the firm that owns Instagram, for comment.
Outage chaos at Instagram appears to be continuing into a second day, despite the social media platform saying the issues have been fixed (file photo)
More than 10 hours after Instagram claimed to have fixed the problem, users are still flooding to Twitter to say that their Instagram accounts are suspended
At 22:00 on Monday night, Instagram said it had resolved the problem and apologised to those affected – but the ‘bug’ is still keeping users suspended
INSTAGRAM STATEMENTS
October 31, 14:14 GMT: ‘We’re aware that some of you are having issues accessing your Instagram account. We’re looking into it and apologize for the inconvenience.’
October 31, 22:00 GMT: ‘We’ve resolved this bug now – it was causing people in different parts of the world to have issues accessing their accounts and caused a temporary change for some in number of followers. Sorry!’
On Tuesday morning affected users flooded Twitter with the problems they’ve been having.
Twitter user @Shivam6005Singh said: ‘My account got suspended from yesterday night I’m unable to recover, @instagram requesting you to unblock my account.’
Replying to Instagram’s Twitter post, @silverlightskin said: ‘Nothing’s resolved. Both my accounts are still suspended, despite you claiming that you “fixed” it.’
Meanwhile, @Anisha38896259 said: ‘Hey @instagram my Instagram account has been suspended without any reason.’
And @tubelightjoy said: ‘My Instagram account is suspended for no reason at all.’
Also on Tuesday morning, @donteventry92 said: ‘my account is still suspended from yesterday.’
And @Sandeep74888741: ‘My account is suspended plz remove this suspended tag.’
The problems all started at around 13:08 GMT on Monday and affected users around the world, according to online outage monitor DownDetector.
DownDetector – which collates reports of outages from multiple sources, including social media and mobile apps – logged more than 4,000 issues, including around 1,000 from UK users.
Several Instagram users reported their accounts being suspended because they ‘didn’t follow its community guidelines’.
Others said they’d been losing followers, potentially due to suspended accounts being removed from their follower counts.
Many users who were affected got a message from Instagram saying: ‘We suspended your account on October 31, 2022.
‘There are 30 days remaining to disagree with this decision. Your account doesn’t follow our Community Guidelines.’
Those who clicked to appeal against the suspension were then presented with a mysterious black screen with a loading circle.
Instagram users who were affected got a message from Instagram saying: ‘We suspended your account on October 31, 2022’
Affected users are given the opportunity to appeal against their suspension, but were then presented with a mysterious black screen
Just after 14:00 GMT on Monday, Instagram tweeted: ‘We’re aware that some of you are having issues accessing your Instagram account. We’re looking into it and apologize for the inconvenience.’
According to DownDetector, the issues were resolved by 17:00 GMT, nearly four hours after they’d started, although Instagram didn’t announce the ‘bug’ had been fixed for another five hours.
Many users took to Twitter to discuss the problems they had been encountering.
One user wrote: ‘Ok soooo my account got banned for no reason, couldn’t appeal it and now my account is gone. & I’m not the only one.’
MailOnline tried to access the app, and did not encounter any issues. However, others took to Twitter to discuss the problems they had been encountering
Another added: ‘My IG acct got suspended just NOW! So many tweets that their acct got suspended too! HELP US INSTAGRAM!’
And one joked: ‘Everyone checking in on Twitter when WhatsApp or Instagram or Facebook is down.’
Instagram is one of several platforms owned by Meta, the firm owned by Mark Zuckerberg, along with WhatsApp and Facebook.
Only last week, WhatsApp experienced a two-hour outage that left users globally unable to send or receive messages.
BEST WHATSAPP ALTERNATIVES
If you’re considering deleting WhatsApp, you’ll be happy to hear that there are several alternative apps to choose from:
1. Telegram
With more than 400 million users, Telegram is one of the most popular WhatsApp alternatives.
While it looks very similar to WhatsApp, what sets it apart is the fact that it gives the option to set messages to self-destruct after a given period of time, leaving no trace.
Telegram also offers end-to-end encryption.
However, as a WhatsApp spokesperson pointed out, Telegram ‘does not offer end-to-end encryption by default so it’s not necessarily more secure than WhatsApp’.
2. Signal
Signal is one of the most secure messaging apps, thanks to the fact that it is open-source.
This means that the code for the app is publicly available to view, making it near-impossible for the app’s creators to sneak in any backdoors that could allow governments or hackers to spy on your messages.
3. iMessage
If you use an iPhone, you may consider simply switching to iMessage, Apple’s own messaging app.
The app has a number of impressive features included no character limits, the ability to send pictures and videos, and of course Apple’s animated emoji feature, Animoji.
Unfortunately, iMessage is only available for iPhone users, so you’ll struggle to interact with anyone using an Android.
4. Google Messages
Google’s answer to iMessage is Google Messages, an Android-only messaging service.
The app replaces your standard SMS app, and integrates with all of Google’s apps and services, making it easy to share images or use Google Assistant.
5. Facebook Messenger
If you were put off using WhatsApp due to its sharing of data with Facebook, Facebook Messenger may not be the best option for you.
However, the app offers a number of helpful features, including games, secret conversations and video calls.
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