(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
This story was originally published on allecmuffett.com. [1]
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.[2]


Instagram wrongly says some users breached child sex abuse rules

2025-07

The BBC has changed the names of the people in this piece to protect their identities.

David, from Aberdeen in Scotland, was suspended from Instagram on 4 June. He was told he had not followed Meta's community standards on child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity, external.

He appealed that day, and was then permanently disabled on Instagram and his associated Facebook and Facebook Messenger accounts.

David found a Reddit thread, where many others were posting that they had also been wrongly banned over child sexual exploitation.

"We have lost years of memories, in my case over 10 years of messages, photos and posts - due to a completely outrageous and vile accusation," he told BBC News.

He said Meta was "an embarrassment", with AI-generated replies and templated responses to his questions. He still has no idea why his account was banned.

"I've lost endless hours of sleep, extreme stress, felt isolated. It's been horrible, not to mention having an accusation like that over my head.

"Although you can speak to people on Reddit, it is hard to go and speak to a family member or a colleague. They probably don't know the context that there is a ban wave going on."

The BBC raised David's case to Meta on 3 July, as one of a number of people who claimed to have been wrongly banned over child sexual exploitation. Within hours, his account was reinstated.

In a message sent to David, and seen by the BBC, the tech giant said: "We're sorry that we've got this wrong, and that you weren't able to use Instagram for a while. Sometimes, we need to take action to help keep our community safe."

"It is a massive weight off my shoulders," said David.
[END]

[1] URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8kjdz9nr3o
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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