Is Instagram Deleting Accounts? Don't Panic Just Yet

If you had trouble logging into your Instagram account today, you are not alone. A lot of users began reporting on Thursday that they had seemingly been locked out, leading many to believe that Instagram was deleting accounts. But rest assured: It's not your content, it's just a bug. Not that's very reassuring to users who have no access to the accounts that they'e taken the time to build up followers for, curate content, and might even need to use it for business. According to BuzzFeed News, Instagram assures that no accounts have been deleted, but that they are working on fixing a bug.

The bug apparently makes it so that a user can't log into an account or even view it. The users are then directed to Facebook to re-log in to their account to no avail. Instagram said:

No accounts have been deleted. However, the bug logged some users out of their accounts, while also locking their accounts from view. When the bug is fixed and affected users are able to log back in, their accounts will be viewable again.

Romper, like BuzzFeed News, clicked through to some of the complainants' accounts and received the same message as the user: "Sorry, this page isn't available. The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed. Go back to Instagram."

Users Complained To Instagram Via Social Media

Many people who reported their account being "deleted" said that they were prompted to enter their phone number to log back in, but were never sent an SMS code and haven't been able to get back into their accounts.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that none of the users appear to have similar accounts. So it's not like, just fitness bloggers are being targeted or just a certain demographic. The complaints are across the board and the bug seems to be taking accounts down at random.

Though that's hardly comforting to individuals who rely on their accounts on the daily for business and are scared that their follower base or content might not weather this bug.

ChocZero's marketing director Rhea Monique told BuzzFeed News that they really needed to show off their 6,500 followers this week. "I'm supposed to talk to wholesale distributors today and our Instagram along with our proof of sales is a big way to pitch relevancy. So it's devastating this happened," she said.

Hopefully no one will hold it against users that there's a bug attacking Instagram accounts. And hopefully Instagram can figure out what's wrong and get people's accounts up and running as soon as possible. How is anyone supposed to take a picture of their brunch this weekend if they can't log in?