Instagram Founder's Instagram Locked When One Person Convinced Instagram He Had Died

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the i-feel-happyyyyy dept

We have talked a long, long time about how the concept of content moderation at the kind of scale of the largest internet and social media platforms is essentially impossible. But it’s not just content moderation that is proving difficult for those platforms. Policing those platforms for anything that relies on user-based input is difficult as well. For instance, Instagram recently found out that its process for locking up the accounts of the deceased may need some work, as one person was able to get Instagram founder Adam Mosseri’s Instagram account locked.

Mosseri’s Instagram account was locked because of Instagram’s memorialization feature, where users can report to the company that an Instagram account holder has died. In response, Instagram will block anyone from logging into the account, and stop the ability to make any changes to already uploaded content.

“I find it ridiculous how Instagram lets such things even happen on their platform in the first place,” the scammer who claimed responsibility for the lock on Mosseri’s account, and who used the handle Syenrai, told Motherboard in an online chat. “The entire banning community needs to be discovered and reported to Instagram so they can put an end to this—it’s basically the dark side of Instagram.”

So, what is that memorialization feature? Well, an email goes into Instagram’s team to trigger the account change. Instagram then requests proof that the person in question is now deceased. That admittedly morbid request takes the form of a request for either a death certificate or obituary. While that seems reasonable, it should be obvious where the flaw in this system is.

“I have a method which is as simple as finding an online obituary of a person who recently passed away,” they explained. “I then submit a memorialize request for the victim’s account using the random obituary I found, and it takes 1-2 days for support to process.”

“As long as the obituary is recent (within same week) the target will be memorialized,” Syenrai said. “It works 98% of the time.”

While, sure, it’s fairly funny to see Instagram lock up and memorialize the account for its own boss, who is very much alive, this all becomes less funny when you understand how this goes for the average, every day user of Instagram. It’s also worth noting that this is one of many vulnerabilities that nefarious actors use to harass targets on Instagram.

As for the memorialization process specifically, Instagram’s comments have all been canned-style responses indicating that big platforms occasionally have tools like this abused and that Instagram has hires “investigators and cybersecurity specialists” to keep nefarious actors at bay. But it’s obviously not working. That Mosseri’s account was locked down pretty much proves that.

If the head of Instagram can fall victim to this, what hope is there for the rest of Instagram’s usership?

Filed Under: adam mosseri, content moderation, memorial
Companies: instagram