Instagram went down and suspended many accounts - here's what we found

If you've been getting this message, you're not alone, but Instagram looks to be aware of the issue.

Rejoice - looks like Instagram is looking into the issue now. Best thing is to grab a drink, and hopefully once you're back, all of this will have blown over.

After the news earlier today that Twitter CEO Elon Musk is wanting to charge for the blue tick, and now Instagram is down, could we see a hat trick soon of another social platform having issues?

Snapchat ceases to snap?

Facebook ceases to face?

MySpace ceases to space? Again?

This is an example from @QueenVIP8 of how her Instagram account was suddenly locked out for no reason.

Again, if you only open up Instagram to look at dog pictures once a day and you're wondering why you've been locked out, don't panic - it's a bug, and Instagram is aware.

This was how the issue was discovered - countless users were realizing that their follower count was shrinking very quickly, and eventually others would share on Twitter how their account would be suspended for no reason.

While there's no word from the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri yet, we're waiting to hear back from the company as to when the issue will be resolved.

This was posted from the Communications team at Instagram in the UK, where he states that it is 'related to a tech issue happening' within the app, and it's being looked into.

We're still waiting for an update, but you get the feeling that it's battlestations at Meta currently, trying to find a fix for this.

An interesting catch from Matt Navarra on Twitter - Instagram pushed out an update earlier today for 'bug fixes'. Could this be related to what some users are currently experiencing?

Our Managing Editor for Lifestyle, Josie Watson mentioned an interesting point of this limbo where no one knows what's going on and if the issue is currently being fixed.

Mainly due to the fact that customer service from Meta, Twitter and others in social media is almost non-existent, so where do influencers and businesses go to try and find a fix for this compared to the casual user?

Currently, there isn't one, it's a wait and see approach, and that could be anxiety-inducing to many who want to communicate with their fans, but are locked out of their accounts.

I did think that this was a good analogy - if it rains, you find shelter, and it's the same with social media platforms.

If one goes down, you go to another to see if anyone else got caught in the storm.

We heard back from Meta if there was an update to the issue, and we were directed to the above tweet from earlier today.

So, no update to the update as yet, but we'll let you know if we hear anything else.

As we're waiting to hear about a fix for the issue, we were reminded of how dark mode arrived for Instagram and other apps from 2018 onwards, and how it helped our eyes as we would scroll through our feed in bed.

To help explain this, here's a video from back in 2019, where we went into the benefits of dark mode.

To note, our own profile on Instagram isn't locked down or suspended due to today's issues, so it does look as though this bug is randomly choosing accounts to do this.

The unusually long Instagram issue continues to play out on Twitter in the strangest ways. First, the Instagram PR team has directed folks to check its @instagramcomms Twitter handle, but the account has not updated at all since its initial cryptic "We're aware ... We're looking into it..." post four hours ago. Since then there has been no news, and while our TechRadar account and many of our individual editors have not reported any issues, clearly the problem persists. 

This is apparent just by following the #instagramdown hashtag on Twitter, which has become a sort of staging ground for Instagram posts that could not be posted on Insta. Many Instagram users have moved on from reporting the outage or complaining about the problem and are now posting photos or groups of photos they say were meant for Instagram. 

Rather than grabbing content from an unverified user, you can check out a post from pro footballer Lucy Bronze making fun of the Instagram run on Twitter today. It's interesting and unfortunate that as Instagram directs users to Twitter for news, Twitter's new CEO is threatening the aspect of the service that makes it a verifiable source. 

Meta has responded to our inquiries about Instagram, though the company has not given us anything new. A Meta spokesperson says: 

“We are aware that some Instagram users in different parts of the world are having issues accessing their Instagram accounts. We’re working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize for the inconvenience.”

Judging from what we've seen in the multi-lingual response to #instagramdown on Twitter, it seemed apparent that this was a global issue, and not just affecting one region. 

There are still many questions unanswered by Meta. We asked if the specific issue has been identified, but Meta did not give us an answer. We also wondered if Meta will guarantee that accounts will be fully restored, but we got no response to that query either. 

It seems that the news of Instagram down will remain anecdotal, so we will follow the users for more information. 

If you need a last minute Halloween costume idea (VERY last minute indeed), Twitter user and artist Rebecca Zammit has you covered with inspiration taken directly from today's Instagram outage. 

We still have no new information from Meta about the Instagram ... whatever this is. It's not exactly an outage, as our accounts are still active, and it would seem a majority of users are unaffected. Still, it is clear that a vocal number of accounts have been suspended for no apparent reason, and whether this is a mechanical glitch or a result of human involvement is unknown. 

For now let's label this the Instagram Mass Suspension Event. We will keep following Instagram users as well as the Meta and Instagram Public Relations teams to see if there is any fix on the way, and if suspended accounts can expect to see reactivation on Instagram any time soon. 

Instagram is back! At least, that's according to Instagram Comms, the hottest new Twitter account, thanks the Instagram Mass Suspension Event. The account first notified the world that Instagram was aware of the issue. Now it has just as unceremoniously told us that it is over. 

In case the tweet gets edited or removed, Meta's Instagram Comms team has said "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!" 

A quick survey of the hashtag #instagramdown still shows users who seem to have just stumbled upon the error, even after Meta has said it was resolved. Whether that means the bug has truly been fixed is unclear. We will keep following the users to determine whether the situation has truly improved. 

Late last night, Instagram sent the above tweet, confirming that it was a bug which was suspending random accounts and changing the amount of followers for others.

While it's back to normal, do let us know if you're coming across some issues from this still.