Instagram is FINALLY back online after accounts were mysteriously suspended

Cristiano Ronaldo – the most followed person on Instagram – lost 3 MILLION followers during a four-hour outage that also caused MILLIONS of accounts to be suspended

  • The outage appeared around 9am ET and was fixed about four hours later 
  • Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the most followed person on the platform, lost about three million followers during the outage 
  • This may have been due to millions of accounts being suspended, but the reason for the issue is unclear 

The most followed person on Instagram appears to have lost three million users during the four-hour outage that hit the social media platform Monday.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who is a Portuguese soccer player, temporarily lost the large number shortly after the social media platform went down around 9am ET – but has since regained all his fans.

While the reason for the crash remains unclear, several users reported their accounts being suspended because they ‘didn’t follow its community guidelines’. 

Others had also lost followers, which may have been due to the millions of suspended accounts that caused in the removal of follower counts. 

Cristiano Ronaldo, who is a Portuguese soccer player, lost about three million followers during the four-hour-long Instagram outage

Cristiano Ronaldo, who is a Portuguese soccer player, lost about three million followers during the four-hour-long Instagram outage

MailOnline contacted Instagram’s owner Meta for further comment on the cause of the issue, although it did acknowledge it on Twitter. 

Just after 10:00am ET, Instagram tweeted: ‘We’re aware that some of you are having issues accessing your Instagram account. We’re looking into it and apologize for the inconvenience.’ 

MailOnline tried to access the app and did not encounter any issues. 

But users who were affected got a message from Instagram saying: ‘We suspended your account on October 31, 2022. 

‘There are 30 days remaining to disagree with this decision. Your account doesn’t follow our Community Guidelines.’

Those who clicked to appeal against their suspension were then presented with a mysterious black screen with a loading circle.  

'Can anyone explain?': MailOnline has contacted Meta, the company that owns Instagram, for comment. Many users took to Twitter to discuss the problems they had

‘Can anyone explain?’: MailOnline has contacted Meta, the company that owns Instagram, for comment. Many users took to Twitter to discuss the problems they had

Other users reported losing followers, potentially due to other users on the platform being suspended

Other users reported losing followers, potentially due to other users on the platform being suspended

Instagram users who were affected got a message from Instagram saying: 'We suspended your account on October 31, 2022'

Instagram users who were affected got a message from Instagram saying: ‘We suspended your account on October 31, 2022’

Affected users were given the opportunity to appeal against their suspension, but were then presented with a mysterious black screen

Affected users were given the opportunity to appeal against their suspension, but were then presented with a mysterious black screen

Many users took to Twitter to discuss the problems they had been encountering. 

One user wrote: ‘Ok soooo my account got banned for no reason, couldn’t appeal it and now my account is gone. & I’m not the only one.’

Another added: ‘My IG acct got suspended just NOW! So many tweets that their acct got suspended too! HELP US INSTAGRAM!’

And one joked: ‘Everyone checking in on Twitter when WhatsApp or Instagram or Facebook is down.’  

MailOnline tried to access the app, and did not encounter any issues. However, others took to Twitter to discuss the problems they had been encountering

MailOnline tried to access the app, and did not encounter any issues. However, others took to Twitter to discuss the problems they had been encountering

Another user in West Virginia, in the US, said: ‘Did anyone else’s Instagram just get suspended for no reason? And now Instagram won’t even bother to let you appeal it just gives you an error?’ 

Meanwhile, a user based in Melbourne, Australia, said: ‘Anyone else’s Instagram just randomly crash after 30 seconds of using the app?’ 

Instagram is one of several platforms owned by Meta, the firm owned by Mark Zuckerberg, along with WhatsApp and Facebook. 

Only last week, WhatsApp experienced a two-hour outage that left users globally unable to send or receive messages. 

BEST WHATSAPP ALTERNATIVES

If you’re considering deleting WhatsApp, you’ll be happy to hear that there are several alternative apps to choose from:

1. Telegram

With more than 400 million users, Telegram is one of the most popular WhatsApp alternatives. 

While it looks very similar to WhatsApp, what sets it apart is the fact that it gives the option to set messages to self-destruct after a given period of time, leaving no trace. 

Telegram also offers end-to-end encryption.

However, as a WhatsApp spokesperson pointed out, Telegram ‘does not offer end-to-end encryption by default so it’s not necessarily more secure than WhatsApp’.

2. Signal 

Signal is one of the most secure messaging apps, thanks to the fact that it is open-source. 

This means that the code for the app is publicly available to view, making it near-impossible for the app’s creators to sneak in any backdoors that could allow governments or hackers to spy on your messages.

3. iMessage

If you use an iPhone, you may consider simply switching to iMessage, Apple’s own messaging app. 

The app has a number of impressive features included no character limits, the ability to send pictures and videos, and of course Apple’s animated emoji feature, Animoji.

Unfortunately, iMessage is only available for iPhone users, so you’ll struggle to interact with anyone using an Android. 

4. Google Messages

Google’s answer to iMessage is Google Messages, an Android-only messaging service. 

The app replaces your standard SMS app, and integrates with all of Google’s apps and services, making it easy to share images or use Google Assistant. 

5. Facebook Messenger

If you were put off using WhatsApp due to its sharing of data with Facebook, Facebook Messenger may not be the best option for you.

However, the app offers a number of helpful features, including games, secret conversations and video calls. 

source: dailymail.co.uk