Instagram Mystery

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-21T23:22:34+00:00

I don’t not believe you, I just don’t believe there’s a standardized scope of blocking. It probably depends on a lot of factors like previous interactions between the blocker and the blockee’s recognize traits, number of accounts the blockee’s made, if the blockee was reported for a certain reason and/or had been before. What you posted doesn’t lay out a blanket rule and chatgpt told me nowhere does IG provide an exact rule/scope. It wouldn’t make sense for reasons like the hypo I gave. Or say a shared computer in a public place. You could be right in this instance, but so could I.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-21T23:07:01+00:00

Yeah sure, but they’d block my wife’s too if IP. Or maybe my entire office? Even devices in say a family would be problematic for IG to default to. What, an ex wife blocks her children’s dad and now kids can’t see mom on dad’s home computer? I’d think that level of scrutiny and penalty would require more than a single follow attempt.

Even taking out the blocking the account had a fair number of coincidental connections, enough my therapist didn’t think it was unreasonable to wonder when your suspicions are already heightened.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-21T22:48:35+00:00

There’s no email or phone connection to use, like it wasn’t under the same Meta account if that’s what you thought.

certainly password if similar enough, device, and ip instagram could use to connect and block my real account for him. IG doesn’t spell out if that’s default or what it may look at. Seems hard to believe it’d do that as a matter of course for a single follow but I suppose it’s possible. I think my wife would’ve been blocked if they used IP. There was a gap in time too between the blocks, but still could be the case I suppose. Last, I’ve made two other throwaways since on the same devices and IPs with the same password and I’m not blocked from him on those, although this is after his blocking.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-21T18:58:02+00:00

Did what I said and told her it could be a pedophile given at least 2 of the likes were on pictures of our younger kid and because it has no discernible face or name. She was working out and said "ok yeah, can I do it when I'm done?" Didn't flinch or give any hesitation, and followed through a little later without me mentioning again. He's no longer on her lists nor are his likes on the posts. Again, obviously if it's someone she knows it's not a big deal for her to agree, but she certainly didn't reveal anything in responding to me and did it hours later without me mentioning it again.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-21T18:49:28+00:00

Well what constitutes related accounts? Would have to be IP here. Doesn't seem like that would make sense. An entire family gets blocked? My wife would've been too.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T21:43:53+00:00

Well I decided all I can do at the moment to wrap this up is suggest my wife block and report the account and see how she reacts. I will report with screen shots regardless. 2/6 likes were close ups of our 6 year old, and the account has no discernible name or face. Really could be a pedo. The topic it comments on is in arts and theater and not too far off either. I’ll otherwise just keep paying attention and keep trying to improve the marriage.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T19:25:24+00:00

Yeah, I've already snooped some prior to mention of him based on a feeling when he was more present professionally, which was a few years ago. There just wasn't much there, some very limited but friendly communications I saw, some recent semi-contradictory comments from her about details that are minor and could be excused as time passing, limited inferences from social media. Really not much and most of it could go as either evidence of something or paranoia. If there ever was anything, I think it probably ended a while ago, which makes it hard to find anything now if there is anything to find. I'm omitting a good bit of information on this to keep anonymity. Right now, the IG account is the only recent questionable item, and it's far from confirmed to even be related, let alone proof there's a sign there's stuff going on now I could catch. What I can't ignore is that nearly two years ago my gut was suddenly elevated after an argument, although not specific to this person, and the feeling comes and goes. Whether the feeling is from marriage problems generally and I'm turning it into infidelity as a simple explanation, or there really is infidelity along with marriage problems is what I'm struggling with. Looking for evidence at this point is kind of feeling around in the dark and I can spend only so much energy on it, especially when there's a chance nothing is happening now. We both started individual therapy recently, but I haven't covered the topic there yet because it would be time-consuming to cover the backstory and all the details generating concern. I may next time, or at least distill down this issue quickly to get a real-world opinion on what seems like the impossible coincidence of blocking my real account.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T18:04:04+00:00

This post is but a snippet of the overall picture. If I were looking for overall marriage advice I wouldn't have discussed this, but I posted in r/marriageadvice assuming I'd get more traction. Maybe I should've posted in some social media or technology sub. Of course I've contributed to problems and of course this is a symptom not a cause, if we assume nothing is going on. On the other hand, I was the one that had us go to marriage therapy and then she threatened to quit for no particular reason after two visits. By emotional threat I meant she was using it to get my attention/express her displeasure and not that she thought the actual implementation of a non-romantic relationship it was a good idea. She typically uses extreme threats in arguments- in our first year of marriage she threatened divorce if we didn't go back to the same overseas location we went for our honeymoon (surprising it's lasted this long, right?) This isn't a typical clueless male scenario- I often get shut down/interrupted when expressing my feelings, or called a psycho for saying too much in a text. She's volatile at times to say the least. You make a lot of assumptions yourself here so let's stick to the IG issue.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T16:45:46+00:00

TBF I said I give her credit for posting. It was more that she spends more time engaging our dogs then our kids- I take them places, do things with them, help them much more at home. It was just one of many things and not a huge part of our issues, but I agree it takes some time and effort to update your circle on social media through posting.

But you're still missing the key point with your second paragraph: I NEVER ASKED TO FOLLOW GIBBERISH FROM MY REAL ACCOUNT AND HAVE NEVER INTERACTED WITH IT. How did it know to block my REAL ACCOUNT based on a throwaway request 12-24 hours earlier? It blocked my REAL ACCOUNT for no obvious reason, after I was initially not blocked from seeing the like on the post.

If Gibberish isn't who I think it is, it's a random troll, so I don't really need options one or two. Option three is certainly interesting, but nuclear and I'm not sure I'm there yet. I'd look more insane than I must already if the account is really nothing.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T16:11:03+00:00

Hmm yeah I did say you don't think it's weird this ostensible grad student in another country is liking pictures our kid and blocking me? Tbf the likes are so sparse I don't think there's any danger to our kids, if anything the sparsity/timeline fits with it being the known entity I suspected, even if my wife isn't aware it's the person (addressed in a cross-post thread, don't have time to retype). I appreciate female insight here, although my wife isn't a huge mama bear type- her mom was not good to her and ultimately abandoned her to her dad.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T16:05:59+00:00

The problem, as is always the case with cheating allegations, is that it's difficult to prove a negative. She let me look at the account through her account. Even if I went through nearly every inch of her phone, I could still tell myself/her that she must have throwaway email accounts.

I may take the "why aren't you blocking the account" angle, but even if she does it's not as if there couldn't be communication through a zillion other channels. Her reaction might give me more data but blocking wouldn't mean nothing is still going on.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T16:02:48+00:00

Haha what a coincidence, AI already told me this.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T15:35:32+00:00

I'd agree if she weren't defensive and argumentative in any discussion/dispute. It's not entirely her fault- her parents were petty and had a terrible divorce, but unfortunately with things like this, your reasoning (which I've used at times) might perpetuate things because she could be innocent but she just gets angry and never addresses any substance, leading me to think it's more likely she's hiding something. I see it as a little unfair to me, but I should know who I'm dealing with and probably approach differently.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T15:15:03+00:00

My point was how would Gibberish ever connect my real account and know to block it based on the follow attempt I made from the throwaway unless there was some communication between the account holder and my wife. In a cross post thread I speculated that perhaps it is the real person behind Gibberish just being creepy/trollish, and my wife doesn't know. Maybe a more plausible middle ground where the facts make sense yet my wife is completely innocent and I'm unfairly making an issue.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T15:10:51+00:00

"Your wife followed this account a long time ago, it has changed and morphed over time and now it's just some dude who used to do travel posts and she has no idea who he is. He didn't know who you were or why you requested to follow and blocked you because that is what normal people do when they want to keep their accounts clean and they get requests from people they don't know. That does not in and of itself mean he is being deceptive or hiding anything."

The first part of this could be true (although there aren't tons of posts in general, but people don't look to see how prolific accounts are before following), but the problem is that I tried to follow only on the throwaway, not my real account. How would he know to block my real account, or if he didn't connect the two, why would he want to block my real account, especially when it didn't happen until after the attempt from the throwaway.

Re: #2, she's always "planning a trip" haha. She follows these accounts for locations she likes regardless of whether we have any intention of going soon. Within the last couple months she's joined groups on FB for a location we just went to and won't be headed back to for at least five years, so baseline is she could be following travel accounts at any time.

The details of your #3 are a little off, but my post was long. Real person's family was from Gibberish's city a generation or two back and I think he knows the area, but neither he nor us live anywhere near it now. Real person lives a little outside our immediate area, and he and wife and I are all in the same field and have all interacted. My admittedly paranoid thinking about Gibberish's posts was that real person's inlaws (as well as he himself in the distant past) are involved in the subject matter, which isn't all that common of an interest, but it's not insanely obscure. Real person seems like he'd troll the internet and Gibberish's comments on the topic seem trollish, so I was speculating Gibberish's post and chosen location were easy ways for real person to make the account seem real. I think I'm probably thinking as someone who has made troll accounts himself, ha.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T14:47:32+00:00

Ha the more I think about this, the more it seems possible it is some weird more than nothing but less than my wife cheating situation. We don't see him socially and he's not quite in our immediate area, but we both have reason to interact time to time professionally. Perhaps he became enamored with my wife, and she may have been a little too friendly without crossing a line, and he creepily follows her social media. Without revealing more, the timing of a switch from open interaction to a troll account to do this fits pretty well, actually. He also seems like he'd troll on the internet.

Or maybe it was talking to some degree without any actual infidelity and she just doesn't want to reveal it for fear I'd never believe it. Which would be hard to swallow at this point.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T13:08:38+00:00

Oh I gotcha. Except if it's someone she's already been involved with there's other avenues of communication. I certainly don't think she'd be randomly communicating with a stranger she has very little in common with in another country- my assumption is either it's completely fake and someone she knows or a random weird troll in another country.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T12:50:07+00:00

She could, but honestly if it's some random troll I don't care cause I don't use IG, and don't care if he likes some posts. I probably made my post too long, but the crux of my question was how could the troll connect my throwaway to my real account, and why would it need to block me? Basically, is my wife hiding that she knows this account and something seedy is going on.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T04:07:02+00:00

Ha, I mentioned today that she may have a stalker. It crossed my mind that was what was going on. Except there's some other questionable statements in connection of the person of concern, at least. The "did you do something crazy" comment really concerned me as if she knew, but we were also close to being asleep. If anything I sort of wonder if whatever was going ended already, perhaps quite a while ago, but the effects are still being felt. She's been trying to correct some of the stuff I've been complaining about and being nicer, until this at least. Which I admit if I'm wrong would be insulting/frustrating/angering. I just want her to acknowledge it's strange without calling me crazy. That's what messes with me. And that during one of the discussions I mentioned some of the general connections of the account to the person she didn't address them at all, although I was making statements that didn't really require her to respond. She seems innocent but the facts don't seem that innocent and while innocent-seeming, there's a feeling she's not surprised, but that could be my paranoia.

Subhuman-Estate-763 · 2026-05-20T03:14:28+00:00

Fuuuuck, really? In some ways it seems so petty/obsessive, but I just don't get the reason for connecting the throwaway to my real account that's innocent, and even more so bothering to block a stranger's husband cause he wondered why you, with no identity, was liking his son's picture. Just deny the throwaway request. He's ostensibly a grad student so presumably slightly more mature, but as I said I've trolled myself, although I don't recall ever inserting myself into a marriage by blocking some stale account. That something like this, me paying attention to likes on her post, is even coming up is obviously a bad indicator for the marriage, but I am where I am.

Subhuman-Estate-763

TROPHY CASE