It’s unclear how it happened, but apparently, some on Instagram are living in fear the service is about to delete their accounts, if they aren’t posting or are using Instagram directly to take pictures. That’s not the case, though some people may have had accounts deleted for other reasons, like a term of service violation.
NOTE: See our follow-up story, Instagram Restores Blocked Accounts After “Temporary Glitch”
The Rumor
The wild rumors of accounts being deleted unless certain activities are followed seem entirely untrue. Instagram has made no such announcement. But, the rumors can easily be followed by checking any “dontdelete” related hastags, like “dontdeletemyaccount” or “dontdeleteig” or some of the others below, as checked using the Webstagram site:
Some of the photos spreading the rumor say things like Instagram is deleting some accounts because it needs more room:
Or that accounts have to use a particular tag or be deleted by July 8:
Or, that there are technical difficulties, and accounts will get deleted if pictures aren’t reposted with an account name:
Concern over the rumor has spilled over to Twitter, where Instagram is being called out about it:
The Reality
We’ve got a message out to Instagram about the rumor, but the service hasn’t posted anything recently like this to its own account, which last left off with a picture from the Chelsea Flower Show:
There’s been no such announcement on the Instagram Blog, nor through its Twitter account nor any press announcements, either.
But Terms Of Service Deletions?
While Instagram has announced no generic mass deletion campaign, there are reports people have had accounts shut down for terms of service violations.
9to5 Mac collected some of these reports on Twitter, and I was in touch with @TeamKanyeChicago on Twitter, who told me:
I was on instagram Monday afternoon and all of a sudden it logged me out automatically. I tried to log back in and it said my account was disabled due to a violation of terms. I emailed them multiple times and I haven’t received anything back. I made a new account, but I can’t use my old user name because they said it was in use. Same with my email account.
Again, we’re checking with Instagram on this and will update if we hear more. It may be there was a cull of some accounts over Terms Of Service issues, but that’s radically different from the mass deletion rumors that are going around.
Postscript: See our follow-up story, Instagram Restores Blocked Accounts After “Temporary Glitch”
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