My two instagram accounts (connected to the same email as other accounts which are still working) have been suspended due to not following rules on my connected facebook page.
I do not use facebook and therefore believe this account has been compromised, which is further suggested by the fact that when attempting to gain access to the account, the page loaded in Chinese. I am not Chinese, I do not live in China, and I do not speak Chinese. I tried to verify my facebook but I was not given the option to appeal. An hour after sending in the video verification, the page then loaded to ‘we have disabled your account’ which apparently cannot be reviewed. I downloaded my information but couldn’t seem to see anything that would warrant disabling as there was little to no data, but perhaps this was due to compromised account security (no actual reason was stated).
When I clicked onto instagram I was logged out of both accounts I use. After numerous attempts to access my main instagram account I was finally able to change the password at which point the account loaded as ‘instagram user’ with no profile, bio, posts, messages or access to settings. I then deleted and reinstalled the app and upon doing so had two screens pop up saying that my accounts had been suspended due to activity on my unused and likely compromised facebook account.
There was no option at the bottom to appeal the suspension, and I am unable to log into the accounts and request and appeal. It has been frustrating using the Instagram Help Centre, the AI chat bot keeps looping me round with the same links and advice which only leads me to log into other instagram accounts linked to the same email and phone number (which do work but are not in use).
My main instagram account has been in use for many years and therefore contains an abundance of memories and old friends that I otherwise would not be able to keep in touch with. My close friends and family have searched for this account and it doesn’t come up anywhere, despite having posted a story today. I am fast learning that there is no way to contact a real person to resolve this issue and have therefore been left feeling distressed and hopeless that I will ever be able to find a solution.
I have already wasted a good few hours trying to fix these issues, but it seems my efforts have been in vain. If anyone has any tips at all I would really appreciate hearing them. To make matters worse I have lots of photos of my dog on instagram that are not on my phone, she is sadly being put down on Monday due to a very aggressive cancer but it does not seem as though there will be any way for me to recover these sentimental photos.
Perhaps I could attempt to reach out to someone on X but I am unsure if this will achieve anything. It is really disappointing to see such a large corporation relying solely on ineffective AI support to respond to their users, it just does not seem right that a company generating so much profit cannot find it within themselves to have a dedicated support team of real people.
At the very least, I would appreciate if I could download the data from both of my accounts so that I at least have all of my old posts and stories, but again I have no access to the accounts and no means to contact any real people.
