10:36Machine-translated from Azerbaijani by AIRead in Azerbaijani
Meta Apologizes for Mistakenly Shutting Down Political Movement’s Instagram Account
Meta has acknowledged and apologized for mistakenly shutting down the No Kings Coalition movement’s Instagram account during nationwide political demonstrations on October 17. The company said the account was down for about 1 hour. According to the organization, however, the account remained down for about 90 minutes. Although the page was restored, administrators were unable to access the account for several hours.
Meta said the problem was caused by automated security systems. An artificial intelligence tool called Claude rapidly checked profiles, posts, and hashtags. The security system interpreted this activity as bot traffic—that is, traffic from an automated program—and shut down the account. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone explained the incident on the X platform on October 17 and issued an additional statement the following day. The account was shut down while information about voter registration and early voting was being shared. The No Kings Coalition called the restriction of its main communication channel ahead of the election unacceptable and requested a more detailed explanation. By Monday afternoon, a post on the restored account had received more than 70,000 likes. The timing of the incident was also widely criticized on social media. The No Kings demonstrations are held to protest the policies of the Donald Trump administration. Demonstrations organized by the movement in 2025 took place in 2,500 cities. The demonstrations began in June of that year. This time, expanding early voting and voter registration ahead of the November 3 midterm elections was among the main issues. Meta has also been accused in recent months of restricting political and social posts. Feminist organizations claimed that content about the sexual assault case at Cornell University was shown less frequently. Pages focused on reproductive health and LGBTQ issues have also said their posts were removed and their visibility restricted without explanation. Complaints increased after the platform eliminated some safeguards against hateful content in 2025. Digital rights expert Kate Ruane said systems that automatically review posts may fail to correctly understand the meaning of content when events are changing rapidly. According to her, users should be given a clear explanation of why an account or post was removed. Activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham also expressed skepticism that the account was accidentally shut down in the middle of a political demonstration. Meta has also backed away from a planned contract change that would have allowed it to collect business customers’ data to train artificial intelligence.
Meta said the problem was caused by automated security systems. An artificial intelligence tool called Claude rapidly checked profiles, posts, and hashtags. The security system interpreted this activity as bot traffic—that is, traffic from an automated program—and shut down the account. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone explained the incident on the X platform on October 17 and issued an additional statement the following day. The account was shut down while information about voter registration and early voting was being shared. The No Kings Coalition called the restriction of its main communication channel ahead of the election unacceptable and requested a more detailed explanation. By Monday afternoon, a post on the restored account had received more than 70,000 likes. The timing of the incident was also widely criticized on social media. The No Kings demonstrations are held to protest the policies of the Donald Trump administration. Demonstrations organized by the movement in 2025 took place in 2,500 cities. The demonstrations began in June of that year. This time, expanding early voting and voter registration ahead of the November 3 midterm elections was among the main issues. Meta has also been accused in recent months of restricting political and social posts. Feminist organizations claimed that content about the sexual assault case at Cornell University was shown less frequently. Pages focused on reproductive health and LGBTQ issues have also said their posts were removed and their visibility restricted without explanation. Complaints increased after the platform eliminated some safeguards against hateful content in 2025. Digital rights expert Kate Ruane said systems that automatically review posts may fail to correctly understand the meaning of content when events are changing rapidly. According to her, users should be given a clear explanation of why an account or post was removed. Activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham also expressed skepticism that the account was accidentally shut down in the middle of a political demonstration. Meta has also backed away from a planned contract change that would have allowed it to collect business customers’ data to train artificial intelligence.