Instagram deleted your account? Instagram blocked you from using the app or from login into your account? It happened to me and I love to share my experience with you – My feelings, the reactions of Instagram and explain what you can do to get your account back – maybe.
What to do if Instagram deleted your account?
Well, it just happened to me. I was a very loyal Instagram user and even had different accounts for sharing different topics. I loved to share my pictures, videos and stories with my followers. As I am a blogger since 2010 with a big audience, I started 2012 promoting my big Instagram account @vanessa.pur on my blog.
During the last two years I also started creating YouTube videos and shared my Instagram profile in every video I had posted – right now I am close on crossing the 100,000 followers mark on YouTube. For sure I also posted my Instagram channel on all my other networks like Facebook, Pinterest, Patreon, Snapchat and so on. No wonder I just crossed the 200,000 followers mark on Instagram with all the work and promotion I did for this app.
Now just imagine waking up on a Sunday morning and being awake immediately when you cannot login to your Instagram account, because it is no longer available. How do you react when you realize, that every hour you spent in this network to create a big audience is gone?
Every picture, every story, every video is no longer available and you have no access to it? No possibility to contact all the friends you followed? No access to your messages with friends, followers and business contacts?
You have to realize, that you do not own your own profile. I started feeling numb and tried to stay calm and focus on the most important things. Never put all your trust in just one network – that was my main lesson that I had to learn – painfully.
Well I am not that angry, like others would be in my position, but I am not sure, if that is the best way of Instagram to interact with an influencer and loyal creator? All devices where I was logged in, where blocked from starting the app. All my other accounts where I was also logged in where “ghosted”, so that nobody could see my content, if I would find a old device that I could use to log in again.
Deleted Instagram profile without warning
What I do not understand is the way they delete your profile. You do not get any email or message by Instagram. And I know, that they can write messages: it was Instagram who put my channel on their suggested-user-list a long time ago – and they contacted me before they did it. They also contact users, who did copyright infringement on their accounts and let them know what they did wrong while deleting one picture.
But if they want to delete “your” complete profile you do not get any warning, reason or information? No single email? No warning message? This is the way you treat the people that supported you for such a long time? I wrote so many blogposts about the new possibilities of Instagram to inform many readers of my blog. I really regret it a bit, that I really trusted this company for so long. I even deleted all content on my Facebook channel, as I am not sure, if they would also delete my Facebook account for no reason? But maybe now they will think it is a fake-account and there is no reason, why I created my Facebook account in 2010 together with my blog?
Really no warning? Well, to be honest, sometimes you will be ghosted by Instagram. That means, that most of your followers will not see your content and your profile and content will not be in any searches. You will not get any new followers for one or two weeks. Which sucks, when you get nearly 1.000 real active followers a day. The worst thing about it is that you do not get any message or reason for it. It would be nice to get to know, what you did wrong in Instagrams point of view.
What can you do to get your account back?
You go to the Instagram website and try to login – write your email-address into the line and click on “need help/problems” a file will be created and you have to send a picture of you holding up your file-number, name and profile-name on a piece of paper. After sending this picture you will get an answer from Instagram.
Sometimes you will get your account back and sometimes you just get a link that may help you find out what you did wrong. So in my case the reason they told me, that one reason was “nudity” – a reason that makes me speechless when looking at my feed on Instagram. I am the one, that checks twice, if you really cannot see too much. I never had a picture showing a hint of my nipples and I always have crossed legs, when I wear short skirts and short pants. You will not find any picture of me wearing only stockings or lingerie on my pictures and these profiles are simply still available without problems.
I would never post any post any sexual pictures like many of the really big accounts do. I just saw a picture on a profile, which I have not problem in seeing it, but this is maybe the content, where you should put some kind of gate in front for some people (e.g. minors or certain countries/cultures). So if the picture to the left (just as an example) and the matching text is totally fine for Instagram, I just cannot believe in this community any longer and why my account (see screenshot above) is deleted.
Is it just on how many people report your picture and how many pictures you have on your profile with reports as a percentage? Is it just a limited number of internal and invisible strikes you can get by other people, that do not support your work? So if you have some enemies it’s your fault? In this online world it is easy to get enemies, e.g. if you or your photographer fight for your copyrights on different networks or if you said “no” to some peoples wishes or if you have have jealous people around you.
Because I know, that even some of my outfits and styles are too hot for Instagram and YouTube, I started my Patreon page. So all pictures of me wearing tight latex clothes, strict leather styles, lingerie or showing my hosed feet will just be available on Patreon. But even on Patreon you will not see any nude pictures of me. I even checked every comment on my pictures and had a long list of blocked words – I blocked every user that could not resist writing a sexual comment on my pictures on Instagram or any other networks, as this was definitely not the reason to post my pictures. I wanted to share my feminine style of elegant fashion with a love for high heels, short skirts and pantyhose.
- So am I happy with the reason Instagram gave me? No, because I do not understand it AND I have no possibility to undo it.
- Will I trust Instagram the way I did before? No, it won’t, because they let me feel like I did something really really bad to this world, which I would never do.
- Will I fight for my old account, for getting my 208k followers back? I am not sure, as there is so much more important in this world and I do not get paid for posting pictures on Instagram, as I do not want to post ads like teas, body scrubs, chocolate and so on my account.
Reasons why accounts get deleted
So lets look a the reasons why accounts get blocked or deleted: too much nudity on pictures, having a fake-account, having too many fake-followers (oh girls, I know so many of you that still buy their fans, and found agencies and brands (e.g. chocolate brands), that do not care about it, as long as it still looks good in their customers eyes), using bots that likes, follows and comments for you, writing spam comments on other pictures, posting pictures without having the copyright and posting illegal stuff are the most important ones.
So if your account was deleted or blocked, keep on contacting Instagram, if you have the power to fight for your own work on Instagram. In my case, I feel that Instagram has stolen my content and contacts from me and still think about speaking to some people to check my rights on this case – or to stop posting content on Instagram and just post everything on Patreon instead, for all my Patreon followers, even without payment. In the meantime I started a new profile on Instagram, but I still hope to get an explanation one day and the chance to make it right or to get a big SORRY by Instagram – but if I get the big account back, would I still post with the fun I had before this happened? I don’t know…
I am thinking about filming a video about it also, to explain what happened to me and that you do not have any right to be free in posting what you want on Instagram, even if it is not illegal. Maybe it is just allowed to post links and ads to Instagram on other social media networks, but not the other way around? Did I write too many nice comments on other pictures? Should I have posted more IGTV videos instead of just being a YouTuber? Still guessing what happened…
Sending lots of love to my former 200,000 followers and thinking about my many hours of liking, commenting, posting pictures and creating pictures only for making my Instagram followers happy… Right now I don’t think that Instagram has a great future – I think it will end the some way like Facebook did for many of my blogger colleagues…
UPDATE: Instagram profile @vanessa.pur
(Update June 1st, 2019) 24 hours after posting this blogpost and sharing it via Twitter and Facebook (thanks for the tons of retweets and reshares!) I received a message this morning from Instagram (screenshot on the right).
It was all a mistake by Instagram and they really regret this error. It’s still no explanation what happened since May 5th, 2019 to my account, but after nearly four weeks my account is back and online.
How will I continue with Instagram? Difficult question and for sure I will also use my second and new account @Vanessa_Pur_Official also for different photos, videos and maybe live chats in the future. You never know, when Instagram will deactivate any account again without any reason. So I appreciate if you follow both accounts (if you aren’t already a follower on my different pages?) – but I will also post much more content on my other networks than I did before – so see you on my different networks!
I’m already overwhelmed how many of you already subscribed to my personal mails and get the push notifications about new blogpost and photo updates. Thank you so much… ❤️
