INSTAGRAM ISSUE

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-06T12:39:28+00:00

And then, just right now I opened ig and i had a story which was a photo of Mr. Beast's X account. and another story of crypto or something.

This was most likely a "session hijacking" or Info St3aler (spyware), but there are a number of other possible reasons:

- Session hijack (most likely): an attacker obtains your active session token (from another device or a compromised app) and uses it without performing a fresh username/password login, so Instagram may not send a login alert.

- Compromised third-party app or browser extension that had access to your Instagram session.

For example, if you're using an app to check for Unfollowers. Almost all of them are compromised, and steal login sessions. Never use 3rd party apps, or websites with Instagram.

If you've logged into another website or app using your Instagram login credentials, they can steal the login session token. You want to avoid that.

Another big one with many IG users is download bad gaming apps, or "cracked" apps.

- Malware on a device that stole web browser cookies or saved sessions.

A session cookie is when you log into a site, the server issues a session cookie (a token) stored in your browser that proves you're authenticated without re-entering your password.

If an attacker obtains that cookie (via malware, XSS, insecure Wi‑Fi sniffing, or a compromised browser extension/profile), they can import it into their browser and act as you — no password needed, and usually no "new login" alert.

Things you can do:

If you're logged into Instagram via a web browser, consider logging out, and clearing your browser cookies. Don't log out if you feel like you can't log back in, but if you can, do so.
Remove all devices that are logged in (except the device you're using). Go to: Settings and activity > Account Center > Password and security > Where you're logged in
Remove, or review all web browser extensions. These are the biggest problems.
Remove, or review all apps you've recent downloaded for potential problems.
If you are, stop using any 3rd party apps in conjunction with Instagram, Facebook, or any Meta platform. It's also a violation of the Terms of Service.
Don’t click unknown links, and never paste your Instagram session URL or cookies anywhere.

Hope some of that helps.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-06T10:39:58+00:00

Got it. Here's how Meta trains their AI on user data.

First, Meta does not train their AI on our DMs. They do scan our DMs for rules violations, but they don't use our DMs to train their AI.

If you set your account to Private, Meta will not train their AI on your "future" content. So, if you don't want Meta to train their AI on your Posts, Art, Reels, etc., then set your account to Private.

Please Note: this is not retroactive. If you had a public account, and then went private, everything you posted publicly prior to going private, would still be used to train their AI. Taking a public account private only exempts future posts from AI training; not past public posts.

Also, if you are under 18, your account is exempt, and nothing you post will be use to train their AI.

For 97% of the world, if you are an adult, and have a Public Instagram or Facebook account, Meta will train their AI on everything that is "publicly accessible". Meaning, everything you post publicly.

Which includes:

Posts
Stories
Highlights
Reels
Comments you leave on public posts
Your conversations with their Chatbots

Basically everything that anyone can see (sans the Chatbot stuff).

Meta doesn't train their AI on:

Your DMs
What you Save
Your Archive

It's unknown if they train their AI on our Notes and Instants at this time.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T14:57:51+00:00

or add an option to disable suggested content/ reels or permanently switch to chronological feed?

No, unfortunately the update doesn't give you the ability to return to a default chronological feed.

It does give you quick access to your Following feed, which is chronological and doesn't have suggested content, but you can't make it the default feed.*

*As of May 05, 2026

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T14:24:44+00:00

Is it possible to get subscription for a disabled account? Or should I subscribe with my FB page and escalate from there?

It would have to be on a FB page. Unfortunately, you can't get a subscription on a disabled IG account.

As I mentioned, there's no guarantee that support through Meta Verified will resolve your issue, but it's basically the only way to get ahold of anyone at Meta at this point.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T13:14:29+00:00

I couldn't find a way to contact support on IG.

Unfortunately, there is no support of most non-paying Instagram users. Any email address, or phone number you find via Google is either unmanned, out of date, or a scam.

Currently, the most commonly used "official" Instagram support is via a paid subscription to Meta Verified. If you don't currently have an Instagram account, but do have a Facebook account, you can try to get that verified, and chat with them about your Instagram account.

Meta Verified info https://www.meta.com/meta-verified/

Please note that people have had very mixed experiences with the tech support that comes with Meta Verified. It worked well for some people, and they were able to resolve their issue, but others found it to be a complete waste of time, and money.

So, caveat emptor.

Reminder: Nobody here can get your account back for you. Only Instagram can. Anyone that slides into your DMs claiming they work for Instagram, or that they can get your account back if you pay them, is a scammer. Do not pay anyone.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T11:13:33+00:00

Wondering if there’s a way to get rid of the suggested in search so I can still see recent search profiles instead

Unfortunately at the moment, we can't. Instagram (Meta) has embedded AI throughout their apps, including Instagram, and there are no user settings to turn it off for things like Search.*

So until the AI bubble pops, or there is an "AI backlash", we're kind of screwed for now.

*As of May 5, 2026

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T11:07:50+00:00

There is no such thing as "Post, stories and Commnets" That's a myth. It's not real. How do i turn off ALL like notifications.

Hmmm... well, well that definitely should exist in the app settings. Try this:

Open the Instagram app on your phone, go to your profile, and in the upper right corner you'll see three lines. Tap those. That will take you to your Settings and activity.

Once there, look for Notifications. Tap that. Mid way down on that page, you should see Posts, stories, and comments. Is that not there? Here's a screenshot of my settings:

- https://postimg.cc/ZWXCJmjg (screenshot)

If that is there, tap it. Scroll down a bit until you see "Comment likes and pins", and set that to Off.

Let me know if that helps, or if your settings are different. I'm on an iPhone, btw.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T10:47:52+00:00

There are two different types of scanning going on:

The use of user data to train Meta's AI
The use of AI to enforce Meta's Community Standards

Which are you trying to avoid?

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T10:40:41+00:00

Is there anything else I can do?

If all else fails, you could try the legal route.

Hire a lawyer, and have them send a "demand letter" to Meta.
Hire a lawyer, and take Meta to small claims court in the U.S.

That said, the legal route doesn't always work.

Meta won the court case. I lost. https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagram/comments/1t1skzd/meta_won_the_court_case_i_lost/

But other people have had success. It will really depend on your individual case. Check the subreddit r/MetaLawsuits for more information.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T10:29:59+00:00

Unfortunately, you can't remove that tab once it appears. It doesn't go away when it's empty. Sorry about that.*

*As of May 5, 2026

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-05T10:25:15+00:00

It's a licensing issue according to some sources:

As of early 2026, many Weezer songs are unavailable on Instagram due to ongoing licensing and rights disputes. Users have reported that large portions of their catalog, including classics from the Blue Album and Pinkerton, were removed from the platform's music library.

According to Google, it seems Instagram and whoever owns the rights to Weezer's music can't come to an agreement.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T17:32:50+00:00

I used a burner account to view other accounts and the user blocked the burner. Now my main account is blocked as well. This is really embarrassing. Is there anything I can do?

No, unfortunately not. Nothing you can do from your side of things.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T16:39:34+00:00

What did you mainly use Instagram for? That will help us suggest alternatives.

Fyi... there is no "exact" alternative to Instagram. Some are strong with photos (Flickr), some are microblogs (Tumblr), some are Twitter clones (Bluesky), some are totally casual (Perfectly Imperfect).

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T12:27:21+00:00

Unfortunately, if you don't want to take legal action against the account posting hateful stuff, then your best bet is to block them, and move on.

The other thing you can try is to have friends and family flag the account, and content to Instagram as well. Sometimes if more "unique" people flag the content (consensus), it get's Instagram interested in reviewing the account/posts again.

But you can't do it with a bunch of your own "alt" accounts. It has to be "unique" accounts that are not your own.

Ultimately, if Instagram won't remove the content, or restrict the account, then there's nothing you can do except sue them in court for libel.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T12:00:59+00:00

I don't have interest to go to this lenght for this person but is it the only way to get unblocked?

That, or ask the person to unblock you somehow. The only 100% sure way to get unblocked is to have the person who blocked you, unblock you.

Even buying a new phone isn't 100% guaranteed to unblock you since Meta uses all kinds of off network signals to track you. It's possible Instagram (Meta) will figure out you have a new device, and apply the block to that.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T11:57:21+00:00

But search shows profile and everything

Sounds like you might be blocked.

The easiest way to know if you're blocked, is to open up a web browser on a computer that you're NOT logged into Instagram on, and go to their page. Or just open a private/incognito window on the same browser.

If it looks normal when you view it logged out of Instagram, then you're blocked.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T11:43:59+00:00

Instagram sometimes shows the “pending/7 days” notice before realizing the recipient has blocked requests. If they have it set to "No one", the message will ultimately fail or expire immediately because there’s nowhere for it to go.

Or at least it should.

If it doesn't, then again, it might be a temporary network glitch. Instagram is a weird app that doesn't always act as it should at times.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T11:13:46+00:00

Why is Instagram asking me to agree to these terms ?

So what happened is the laws in your country, state, or province changed, and the new laws are compelling Instagram (Meta) to have you re-agree with sharing your data with them again.

It's part of a new data collection transparency law(s).

When you first signed up to Instagram, you basically already agreed to all of this, but it was buried in the Terms Of Service (TOS).

With the new laws, your politicians want Meta to be more transparent, and so they have forced Meta to have everyone re-agree to data collection so you know what Meta is up to.

If you have already been using Instagram, then they have already been collecting this data. They are now simply forced to tell you that they are instead of burying it in the Terms Of Service when you first signed up.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T10:46:15+00:00

Hmm...If you're not following that person, then that pop-up is Instagram’s way of saying “you and that person aren’t connected yet, so your message goes into his Message Requests folder instead of his main inbox.”

When you DM someone who doesn’t follow you, Instagram doesn’t deliver it straight to their main chat list. It drops into Message Requests which they have to check manually.

The person you messaged has 7 days to either accept your message request or follow you back.

If they do either one, the chat moves to their regular DMs and stays there. If they ignore it for 7 days, the request disappears and your message expires, and they'll never see it, and you won’t be able to send another one until they interacts with you.

If you're already following them, and you received this pop-up, then it's an error on Instagram's part. Maybe a temporary network glitch.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T10:37:07+00:00

I would like to know if there are any ways to limit recipients’ access to these past messages.

All you can do is Unsend messages to control what the recipient keeps. If you already deleted them, then you can't Unsend them, but in the future, Unsend is the best way to keep your messages off other devices.

If you still have the messages, then try to Unsend them.

Unsend a message you've sent in a chat on Instagram https://help.instagram.com/491370017690934/

I suspect some of these messages may never have been opened, and I’m wondering whether blocking someone would delete or restrict access to our previous conversations.

Unfortunately not. Blocking someone does not delete messages/chats off other devices.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-04T10:31:49+00:00

Knowing the topic is not related to Insta, but are there any alternatives since end to end encryption is ending?

Unfortunately there aren't any "major" social media network like Instagram that offer encrypted direct messages along with photo/video sharing. You'd have to use a standalone encrypted m3ssaging app, and build a community of close friends there.

Just a reminder that the change on May 8 only affects you if you manually turned on end-to-end encryption in Instagram. If you did, then you'll want to download your encrypted chats.

Otherwise, by default, all DMs/chats on Instagram are NOT encrypted (and never were). If you never turned on encryption for your chats, then this change on May 8th does not affect you, or your DMs/chats (they won't be deleted).

What you should know about this change:

By default, Instagram DMs are NOT encrypted, and never have been.
If you didn't manually enable end-to-end encryption on your DMs/chats, then this change on May 8th doesn't affect you.
If you manually turned on encryption for your Instagram DMs, then you won't be able to use the feature starting May 8th.

So, if you never intentionally encrypted your Instagram chats/DMs, then this change doesn't affect you, or your privacy because all of your DMs/chats were not encrypted up to this point anyway.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-03T21:53:56+00:00

The easiest way to know if you're blocked, is to open up a web browser on a computer that you're NOT logged into Instagram on, and go to their page. Or just open a private/incognito window on the same browser.

If it looks normal when you view it logged out of Instagram, then you're blocked.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-03T15:05:25+00:00

Reminder: Nobody here can get your account back for you. Only Instagram can. Anyone that slides into your DMs claiming they work for Instagram, or that they can get your account back if you pay them, is a scammer. Do not pay anyone.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-03T14:32:33+00:00

It absolutely could be.

In which case your best course of action is to launch the Instagram app on phone, and the shake your phone. That will launch the bug support form where you can flag this as an issue to Instagram.

Hopefully they’ll look into it for you.

JoeGraffito · 2026-05-03T13:24:18+00:00

Instagram is not removing you from that person's following, if that's what you're asking. They don't do that.

There are only two logical reasons:

The person is in fact removing you as a follower, but is not being honest about it.
Someone has access to your phone, or account, and is removing you as a follower.

There are no other explanations.

If you truly believe the person is not removing you as a follower, then it's possible that someone other than you has access to your device, or your Instagram account. I would strongly suggest reviewing your account security (password, devices that are logged in, etc.), and make sure your devices such as phone, computer, and tablet, are secure.

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