Hi. A few days ago (april 29th) I was scrolling as usual, then stopped, then opened instagram again only to find it telling me my account was suspended, and the whole usual ordeal with the appeal stuff.
The reason for the suspension: (couldn't post the screenshot)
SoC / SoM (Sexualization of Children / Minors) and not actual CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation), since I only 'Saved' a few reels throughout April.
About this rule
To protect children, we don't allow people to interact with content or accounts that sexualize minors. (PS: they were not sexualizing minors, they were literal kids goofing around)
Examples of things we don't allow
- Repeatedly searching for, sharing, liking, commenting on or saving content that sexualizes minors
- Joining communities or groups that go against our rules on child safety
My facebook and both my instagram accounts (one was fully empty) got suspended, and both their appeals were immediately denied within 10 minutes.
The reason was somehow for interacting with content associated with sexualizing child content.
You can find details on the ban at the end of the post.
Now, whether you believe me or not, is up to you, but over the last few months I developed a habit of instantly pressing the 'save' button on reels, regardless if they're interesting or not, sometimes I do that abscent-mindedly.
Recently, the algorithm suddenly started pushing out some random children accounts and content, which I really didn't find comfortable. Some was casual, just a random kid videoing themselves talking or yapping, some others dancing terribly, random content.
And of course, some of the reels I happened to save with my brain off were from these child accounts.
A week went by, and I remember saving about 5-10 of these kinds of videos, from the top of my head.
Now, since a whole lot of other people are facing the same issue, I'm not sure what to do moving forward.
Initially, I just created a new facebook and instagram accounts. The facebook one survived, but the instagram one was barely surviving. And by that, I mean I couldn't log into it at all. All I had of it was my current session on my first phone. I couldn't log in from my PC or my second phone.
Eventually, I tried to change the password, and it logged me out. That was the end of that one.
I created a new one again, and this time I also couldn't log in on PC. On my second phone, it let me approve the login from my main phone and somehow that worked.
Thing is, it's not gonna keep working. I'm not gonna feel safe using it as normal knowing I could be locked out at any moment.
TLDR:
- Saved 5-10 reels from child accounts throughout the last month abscent-mindedly.
- Got all my meta accounts suspended due to "child sexual exploitation", appeals got insta-refused.
- Made a new account, doesn't let me log into it at all (password incorrect OR information incorrect)
- Made another account, same thing.
If anyone knows how or if I could recover my accounts, without buying verified stuff or through lawyers, because unfortunately I'm based in Algeria and online purchases are not available to me, please let me know.
Otherwise, thank you instagram. Thank you very much.
Update: Ban explanation (Thanks to the amazing fellow that explained it to me)
It was a SoC/SoM (Sexualization of Children/Minors) ban, not a CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation) ban, which are not the same; my case falls under 'SoC/SoM' due to interacting with the relevant reels.
Also, when I was suspended, the ban message started with "Our technology found a violation" and "Our technology took action" or something along those lines, which made me realize it was the AI acting up, taking my worthless interaction to heart and immediately assuming things.