Getting Kicked Off Of Instagram
Experiencing the proliferation of anonymous trolling, the glaring limitations of chatbot customer service, and the denial of appeals.
I was recently informed by Instagram that my account — an account I had for nearly 14 years — had been suspended. The reason given was that I had violated community guidelines by posting sexually explicit material and child endangerment.
WHAT??
Anyone who ever followed me knows that my content was about art, music, politics, and other cultural interests. The last half dozen or so videos I posted were of me discussing a search to discover my father’s family ancestry. I’ve never posted anything even remotely like what they were describing.
I was asked if I’d like to appeal. Well, of course I did.
The first steps were a series of security checks. They emailed me a code to enter into a form. Once submitted, they texted me a code to enter into another form. Then they asked for a selfie to prove I was human. After doing that, they said they’d take my appeal under consideration.
Wait! What appeal? That was just the security check!
They never sent me any actual example of the supposed violation or gave me a chance to contest the decision. In fact, they never followed up with any questions of any kind. They simply replied that my account was disabled, all of my posts had been deleted and no further appeals were allowed.
No further appeals? I was never given the chance to appeal in the first place.
I searched in vein for a phone number or email address or contact form. I knew I wouldn’t find anything anyway. This has been a problem with a growing number of companies for several years. The tendency to rely less and less on human interaction, opting instead to let AI and chatbots take over the task of customer service.
The problem is you have situations like this one happening more and more often, where a loyal customer is not given the benefit of the doubt. They’re simply cast aside because it’s cheaper than hiring a human to review a supposed violation. If a human was on the job, a quick search on my content would have shown that I never posted anything in violation of the community standards.
What makes this hurt more is that it had to be someone going out of their way to report me because the banning extended to my now shuttered Cafe’s Instagram which hadn’t been updated for two years as well as my band’s Instagram. That one was just created last summer in an effort to draw attention to an album we released in 2003! How in the world did either of those violate community guidelines? Also, both accounts were separate from my personal account with different login criteria.
Well, I will never know for sure because of AI taking control of customer service and the complete lack of privacy rights in social media. The fact that someone can anonymously file a report — even a bogus report — and all of your information just goes away without any recourse or actual appeal process is not just shameful, but scary.
This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with a situation like this. Back in 2021, my Facebook account was hacked. At that time, there hadn’t been any reported violations, but I was locked out just the same. I had that account since 2006 and yet I was relegated to discussing my situation with chatbots. At least back then they made it seem as though they were trying to help. Since that account was directly tied to several businesses, I was worried about security.
Facebook took steps to lock the account while they worked on the appeal, protecting me from any possible scams. I would ask for updates weekly for about a year, each time being told that the situation had been escalated to a special group of advanced tech folks. I even set up a new account so they could contact me, since you can only interact with them if you have an account. Yet, nothing came of it. To this day, that account is dead.
I know that a social media profile is, in the grand scheme, nothing serious. Oh sure, it’s annoying and hurtful to have this happen, but that’s really all it is. However, what if this was a bank account or an ecommerce business or health insurance? What if someone’s life was literally on the line and all they had to deal with was a chatbot? It’s not that far fetched.
Steadily — and at an increasing rate — this is what we are becoming as a society. Consumers being serviced by literal inhuman objects. Machines with ho heart, no mind, no soul. Just a limited list of solutions meant to address complex problems and with no chance of follow up. It’s classic sci-fi come to life. And the people in charge of this think it’s fine.
There may be a place in society for AI — streamlining searches or fixing errors in images or whatever — but not customer service which can cause harm if done incorrectly. Among things being touted by the Trump administration is halting any regulations to AI for ten years. If that passes, we’re doomed. Not because AI is inherently evil. Rather the danger lies in allowing companies to become even more lazy in their public interactions.
The fate of human wellbeing would simply be left to chance. All in the name of growing the profits of already bloated wallets. These changes are being applied first and foremost because they lower operational costs. And as we know in business, lowering costs takes priority over customer service. We’ve all seen new software updates that are less user friendly — and often less efficient — than past versions.
Do you remember that big Microsoft security breach a while back that shut down banks and hospitals? It was essentially caused by a coding error. However, it could have been averted if not for cutting the extra cost of redundancies. Something that is needed in cyber security.
And now we have the evolution of AI. It’s not being championed by big business because of its technological advancements. It’s being championed because of the cost cutting power it brings to the table.
So, what can be done? I’m still working on that. I have a few thoughts and I’ll post them soon once I sort them out. In the meantime, be vigilant. Watch your security. Be sure your profiles are safe and just know that a random troll could at any time throw a spanner in the works and the chatbots won’t be there to help.
I wish I could’ve ended this rant on a more positive note, but I just can’t think of anything right now. Sorry.
Cheers!
Stephen