Instagram

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Instagram

Basic Information
Release Year	2010
Product Type	Social Media
In Production	Yes
Official Website	https://www.instagram.com/

Instagram is a global social-media platform and subsidiary of Meta since 2012. Founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram focuses on sharing photos and videos. This content can take the form of a "reel", "post", or a "story". Moreover, Instagram has a direct-messaging service and a live-streaming service built in.

Instagram has been scrutinized for many consumer violations revolving around the extent of its data collection and the use of said data.

Consumer impact summary

Privacy

• On signup, Instagram collects details such as the user's name, email, phone number, and profile information.
• Through the use of the app, Instagram collects the following:
  • Interactions including, likes, comments, posts, and direct messages.
  • Location Data.
  • Device Information.
  • Usage Data.
  • Content Data including metadata from photos and videos.
  • Information from messages including the people the user interacts with the types of messages the user sends.
• Instagram shares data to 3rd parties including advertisers directly and through Meta.
• Instagram will share data with law enforcement if legally compelled.
• Instagram will analyze messages for the purpose of detecting spam, harassment, or abusive content.
• Instagram uses user data to serve targeted advertisements to the user.

Transparency

• The Instagram privacy policy states how most user data is collected and stored.
• Instagram allows users to download a copy of their Data through their front-ends.
• It is unclear how much information is collected from user to user messages.

Freedom

• Instagram messages are not end-to-end encrypted.
• Instagram, as part of Meta, has a forced arbitration clause in its terms of service.
• Instagram has the ability to remove content without citing a reason.
• Instagram is granted a license to use, distribute, modify, run, copy, display, and create derivative works of uploaded content.

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Instagram category.

API restrictions (2016)

Starting in June 2016, Instagram imposed restrictions on their API that made it difficult for third-party apps, web front-ends and search engines to work. Third-party tools like Hashtag Pirate had searching capabilities well beyond Instagram's built-in search tool, such as filtering by multiple tags and limiting by media type (photo or video).

It is similar to what Reddit did seven years later, in 2023.

Meta shares personal data from millions without consent. (2018)

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Controversy regarding the data privacy of minors (2019—2023)

Since at least early 2019 until mid-2023 Meta has taken minimal action regarding closing accounts of children under 13, after requests sent from their parents and friends. Meta was actively collecting personal information of these children without their parents consent. This led to a lawsuit against the company in which it was stated that Meta violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA).

Instagram data breach (May 2019)

Chtrbox's statement on the 2019 Instagram data breach.

In May 2019 Instagram suffered a large data breach which exposed sensitive information of almost 50 million influencers and brands such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses. It was later stated that at most no more than 350000 accounts were affected and some of the personal information was already made available to the public by the affected accounts.

The database was stored on an Amazon server and wasn't protected by a password. It was exposed for at least 72 hours, although a researcher verified that it was first accessed on 14 May.

New iOS Camera Activity Indicator shows camera activity at unexpected moments (2020—2022)

Some users reported their camera being accessed while they were not using a feature of the app that ordinarily involves taking pictures or videos. This was revealed by a new indicator in iOS 14 and the same thing was repeated when Android 12 introduced a similar indicator.

Instagram claimed that nothing was recorded in these instances. Their responses never addressed concerns that the camera feed might be used for things like analysing the face for emotional reaction to ads, recording location information or similar.

Instagram uses personal data for advertisements without proper consent (2020)

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Instagram allows AI to be trained on user data (2023)

In March 2023, Instagram updated its Terms of Service to allow them to use collected data to train artificial intelligence. This data includes uploaded photos and videos and the creators were not given compensation. This new TOS was mandatory to accept to continue using the platform.

Opt-out was available in regions where this was legally required, but involved a ridiculously complicated process using a variety of dark patterns to dissuade users from taking Meta up on the offer. The form included a free-form text box where the user had to explain their reasons for opting out and suggested that all requests would be manually reviewed and reserved the right to reject the user's wishes.

Allowing pornographic ads on platform (2023—2026)

Meta's Advertising Standards clearly states the following:

Ads must not contain content that facilitates sexual encounters, commercial sexual services between adults, or content asking for or offering pornographic content.
Ads must not contain imagery depicting nudity, sexual activity, depictions of people in explicit or sexually suggestive positions, or activities that are sexually suggestive.

In September 2023, it was reported by NBC that AI chatbots were being allowed to be advertised on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, with those ads mentioning sexual themes and innuendos such as "hot pics" and "nsfw role play".

A January 2025 report by the European nonprofit AI Forensics noted in 2024 Meta allowed 3,300 NSFW advertisements on its platforms, including Instagram. LeMonde notes that the ads that contained deepfakes are illegal in France.

On 10 April 2026, a user on Reddit posted two self-censored screenshots of an Instagram video ad that depicted a man and a women having sexual intercourse with exposed breasts and genitalia. The next day on 11 April, the ad account was "disabled" for violating Meta's advertising standards. The "Gracet Gracet Baez" account has not been banned as of 14 April 2026, and is still public on Facebook.

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  NSFW advertisement on Instagram.
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  Another NSFW ad on Instagram.
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  Advertiser page.
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  About page for the advertiser.
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  Account "storefront"; still active after being actioned.
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Instagram shows gore and violence videos to select users (February 2025)

In what Instagram calls an "error", some users were shown videos of graphic death scenes and animal abuse in their Reels feed for about a day.

This also serves as an example for the kind of content Meta staff has to review when flagged, raising questions about the impact to mental health from watching this type of content all day on the workers tasked with content moderation.

Introduction of maps feature (August 2025)

On 6 August 2025, Instagram introduced two features in their app; re-posts and the map, with the latter being heavily clarified the feature is opt-in. Many of its users have voiced concerns with the feature being implemented, as some say their location was enabled without their knowledge. Other users have demanded Instagram to remove the feature altogether on the company's posts, citing the creepiness and danger posed to younger users and women. Privacy-focused users have suggested those with Instagram to disable Instagram's location services altogether through the phone's settings.

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  Statement from Instagram on August 8th clarifying how the maps feature is integrated with existing accounts.
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Instagram already had a "photo map" feature in its early years, which was removed in 2016.

Removal of opt-in end-to-end encryption of messages (2026)

Main article: Instagram removes end-to-end encryption for direct messages

Meta quietly updated its help pages to announce that messages between users on the platform will no longer be end-to-end encrypted starting May 2026 after pressure from child safety lobby groups. Meta stated that the removal is due to very few users actually using the feature. This is most likely because it required a manual opt-in.

Products

• Boomerang (2015—2022): A standalone app that looped videos.
• Instagram TV (IGTV) (2018—2022): An app for long-form vertical videos.
• Instagram for TV (2025—): An Amazon Fire TV app for watching Reels.

See also

• Facebook
• Snapchat
• TikTok