Instagram Locked Me Out
I’m finally feeling like I can write about my Instagram lockout situation. It’s been 13 days now. Let me start from the beginning.
On November 3rd I woke like every other day. I had just started my new morning routine, it was actually the first day. I no longer was going to look at my phone in bed when I woke up. I was going to get up, make my bed, brush my teeth, drink a full bottle of water, stretch for 5 minutes, get dressed, go downstairs, turn on the news, make a cup of coffee, then check my phone. So I did just that.
When I got downstairs and turned the TV on and tapped on the @instagram symbol on my phone, I had been logged out of my instagram account: @fatskinny.girl. I thought: “That’s so weird”. I tried to log back in and it said: “your account has been disabled for violating our terms”. My heart stoped. There was an option to click to learn more. So of course I clicked on it.
It then said: “your account has been disabled for pretending to be someone else”. I literally said: “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!”
Then there was an option that said: “If you think this was a mistake: please let us know, and there was a link. SO OF COURSE I CLICKED ON THAT".
I was then asked to provide the following: Drivers license, business license, full name, address, instagram handle. So althought skeptical, I took pictures of all of those things, and sent it. They said thank you for providing this, we will be in touch soon. That was 13 days ago.
Every single day, I follow the same process. I have managed to reach someone through facebook concierge, who has escalated the issue. But all I get every single day is that they are still waiting for the internal team to review the issue and someone will get back to me.
They are always nice, polite and very apologetic, but all they keep saying is be patient, the team will review it, because of COVID and the ELECTION, they are understaffed.
All I can think to myself is, imagine is this was my full time job? Imagine if this was my only source of income? This could happen to anyone at anytime. It’s absolutely NOT RIGHT.
My instagram community was everything to me. I poured my heart, my soul, my money, my time into building a community of like minded women who were supportive, positive and there for each other. Then overnight, POOF! GONE! This is totally not OK.
Someway, somehow, with the support of these amazing women, almost 1500 people have found me. I can’t even tell you how much this has meant to me. When I was ready to give up, this is what kept me going. A good friend of mine said to me, look how loyal and caring your community is, they are looking for you and finding you. That was an AHA moment for me. It was enough for me to say, I am not giving up, even if it means starting over.
The only way I can move forward is by accepting that I am being challenged for a reason, that there will be a lesson in this somewhere along the way. BUT, I will promise one thing, I will not stop until my instagram is restored, I have worked way to hard to just let it go. I will fight, scream, and write every single day if I have to. I will not allow this to happen to me.
In the meantime, life goes on, my journey continues, I will keep my head held high and carry on with the 1400+ amazing people that have found me, supported me, and are sharing my story so that more people can find me.
I want you all to know that I am beyond grateful for every single one of you, the support, the encouragement, all of it. You are all so incredibly amazing.
Terri xo
