Account integrity

Instagram introduced authenticity checks in August 2020 for a small number of accounts showing patterns of potentially misleading behavior, asking people to confirm who was behind them2. Examples included suspected coordinated deception and accounts whose followers were mostly in a different country from the account holder2. A Meta patent describes another approach to identifying genuine public-facing accounts, using relationships and likes from already-authenticated accounts, plus links and visits from external websites or search engines9. Those Meta patents describe favoring authentic pages over impersonators in suggestions and search results; they do not establish that Instagram uses these methods910.

Instagram’s account protections include systems that distinguish legitimate users from attackers, block suspicious logins and flag accounts that appear compromised1. In December 2025, Meta’s Newsroom reported that new account hacks had fallen by more than 30% globally across Facebook and Instagram over the preceding year, while improvements also helped avoid mistaken account disablements1. Meta’s Newsroom explains that setting up two-factor authentication on Instagram enables Login Request alerts for login attempts from unfamiliar devices or browsers5. Its July 2021 guidance identified the “Emails from Instagram” tab in settings as the place to check authentic account communications within the app5. For compromised Facebook or Instagram accounts, Meta’s Newsroom describes identity confirmation through an official ID or certificate bearing the person’s name, and an October 2024 test that compared a recovery video selfie with account profile pictures using facial recognition6. Meta’s Newsroom said those uploaded video selfies would be encrypted and stored securely6.

Instagram’s account-integrity protections also depend on people reporting questionable accounts or content, including through a profile, a post’s three-dot menu or a press-and-hold action on a message5. Meta’s Newsroom documents account suspensions and litigation against sellers of fake Instagram likes, views and followers, as well as enforcement against automated Instagram accounts collecting profile information without authorization1617. Instagram says it removes accounts engaging in sextortion and takes steps to prevent replacement accounts, while precautionary restrictions can limit potentially suspicious accounts’ contact with teens before a rule violation is established18. Mosseri acknowledged in June 2020 that limits on how frequently people could post or comment sometimes caused Instagram to mistake genuine users for automated accounts7. Meta’s camera-linking patents propose using clues that photos or videos came from the same camera, together with account relationships, to help identify suspicious or duplicate accounts; they are not descriptions of documented Instagram practice1920. Another Meta patent proposes assigning accounts numerical assessments and choosing thresholds for automatic disabling or human review according to specified performance criteria, rather than establishing how Instagram currently makes those decisions21. Instagram’s Account Status shows removed photos and videos alongside whether an account’s content can appear in recommendations, such as Explore or Reels shown to people who do not follow it3. For originality decisions, Mosseri directed account holders to check their status in Account Status and appeal if they believed Instagram had made a mistake8.