Wow, fuck Instagram

[cashew]

So apparently Instagram no longer allows alias or anonymity on their accounts. What a load of bull. The only reason I was even using it is because a friend insisted that I use it so she could send me silly Instagram posts.

This is why I hate modern social media.

Edit:

Actually, now that I think about it, I think I've been through this mess with Insta when trying to follow tanithryudo and Insta banned my account. Seriously, what a fucking bullshit platform.

Edit2:

Went back and check and nope, that was Facebook, who owns Instagram, so I'm not even surprised at the same bullshit practice. Anyway, point is, everything owned by Meta is horrible and I wish there was a better alternative.

Comments

[cashew]

Hm, yeah, on re-reading, I wasn't very clear.

What happened recently is that a blank Insta account I was using to receive some Insta link from a RL friend (I try to keep my RL and online live separate so have separate accounts for basically everything) got banned for "rules violation", which confused me since I don't use the account for anything other than clicking Insta links sent to me. I didn't upload or comment with the account, I only used it to receive Insta links to click. According Insta, I was banned because I didn't "use a real name", which violates the community rules. In the process of submitting an appeal, the automated system demanded Real ID, including phone number.

So no, it's not just a phone number; Insta refuse to let me use the account to receive DMs from a RL friend and slapped me with "rules violation". Why? I have no idea, because until I provide my "real identity", the system refuses to let me in.

Hopefully that clarified things a bit.

Re: phone number - given that social media accounts are constantly compromising phone numbers (Facebook being a pretty egregious one) and I need to keep my real phone service clean so that I can continue to use online banking overseas, I've been using Google Voice numbers for most of my recreation/loyalty program accounts. If a freaking grocery store can accept a Google Voice number as my primary contact, Insta sure as well should accept my Google Voice number. But no, Insta insists that it's not good enough (much like how American banks refuse to accept VOIP numbers). So at this point, not being physically in the States and thus can't open a burner number just to get fucking Insta up and running, I'm a bit pissed at the platform.