Preceding the suspension of my account, I was presented with a prompt relaying that my account was exhibiting “suspicious activity” just about every time I logged in. Instead of making specific claims about how I was violating IG’s rules, I was instead linked to IG’s Terms of Use—IG never told me which term I had specifically violated.

Leaving me to guess on my own as to why I was receiving these prompts, I decided to stop using my VPN and IG Downloader while logged on to IG (note: I did not—and do not—steal anyone’s content; I only post content belonging to women who have given me their consent). Nevertheless, my account was still suspended and no specific reasons were given by IG.

When I appealed the suspension, I was not given the option to write a defense for myself, explaining why my account should be unsuspended and restored to normal function. Instead, IG only gave me the option of pressing the Appeal button—that’s it!

So to summarize: IG flagged my account for “suspicious activity” but did not elaborate as to what this activity was, then IG gave me the option to appeal the suspension of my account but did not allow me to write a defense against their vague accusation. At no point in this process did I have the power to defend myself and explain my actions; all I could do was press a button.