Instagram is finally back online following a four-hour outage that saw accounts suspended and users lose hundreds of followers.
The problems started at around 13:08 GMT and affected users around the world, according to online outage monitor DownDetector.
While the reason for the crash remains unclear, several users reported their accounts being suspended because they ‘didn’t follow its community guidelines’.
Others said they’d been losing followers, potentially due to suspended accounts being removed from their follower counts.
According to DownDetector, the issues were resolved by 17:00, nearly four hours after they’d started.
Instagram is having issues this afternoon, with reports of users having their accounts suspended
DownDetector logged more than 4,000 issues from Instagram users, including around 1,000 from UK users
‘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 are reporting losing followers, potentially due to other users on the platform being suspended
MailOnline contacted Instagram’s owner Meta for further comment on the cause of the issue, although it did acknowledge it on Twitter.
Just after 14:00 GMT, 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.’
DownDetector – which collates reports of outages from multiple sources, including social media and mobile apps – logged more than 4,000 issues, including around 1,000 from UK users.
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.
Instagram users who were affected got a message from Instagram saying: ‘We suspended your account on October 31, 2022’
Affected users are 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
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.
