These guidelines are nothing out of the ordinary, just you agreeing to not post harmful content dealing with things such as bullying, terrorism, nudity, threats, impersonation, and various other things that are very easy to not post about. However, there still are accounts that actively do so. Other accounts are able to report anything that breaks these guidelines, including comments and posts, so that Instagram can look into it and see if there is a true breach of the agreement. When you do post about these forbidden things, Instagram will report the violation and may potentially delete your account. You are typically just given warnings and suspended for a few days for the first couple of offenses, but the more you continue to post about such things, the more likely you are to get your account permanently deleted.
What Does ‘Your Account May Be Deleted’ Mean?
Instagram will alert you of your account being at risk to be deleted. They will send you a message warning you of your violations to give you a head-up as to why you are facing a potential ban. So all this means is that your current actions are going against the guidelines you agreed to when you first created your account. There are set rules to be able to enjoy Instagram and if other users report your violations, your account will become at risk. Instagram takes its community very seriously and wants to ensure that all users are enjoying their content properly, so any reports made to your account will lead to the potential of your account being deleted.
How Many ‘Your Account May Be Deleted’ Warnings Does Instagram Give You?
3 strikes and you’re out? Sadly, this does not apply to the Instagram world. The app can choose to delete your account whenever they want, there are no set amount of warnings you receive before you are removed from the platform. Before Instagram gives you violation warnings, they’ll start limiting how long you can do certain things. If you do continue to violate, you’ll get the Your Account May Be Deleted warning and if that continues, your account will eventually be disabled for violating too much. However, there is a difference between disabling and deleting your account. If your posts, comments, or other interactions are causing your account to get reported by others, your profile may just be disabled for some set time. This means that you will not be able to use Instagram in any form, but your account still exists. You are basically just in a time out until Instagram can look into what you are posting and decide if you are truly breaking community guidelines. A new feature that Instagram has also added lately is that you will receive a warning if your account has the potential to be deleted. If this happens to you, you will receive a notification from the app saying that you have an Account Warning. Once you click on the notifcation, Instagram will bring you to a page that says Your Account May Be Deleted and have a list of the offenses you have committed. Whether you posted hate speech, were bullying another account, or shared a picture that shows nudity, Instagram will share with you why your account is being considered. Instagram has also been receiving more and more complaints every year about their lack of properly monitoring accounts and taking action to remove harmful people. This led the company to announce, in 2019, that this warning was now becoming real and heavily increased their enforcement of removing accounts.
Why Does Instagram Say Your Account May Be Deleted Instagram
1. You’re Violating Instagram’s Guidelines
One of the potential many reasons you are at risk for deletion is because you are going against Instagram’s guidelines. In order to create your account, you had to agree to said guidelines. Their rules include only posting content that you have legal access to, avoiding hate speech, symbols, sexual activty, bullying, harassment, nudity, terrorism, impersonation, minors, homophobia, threats, and other content that is putting other users safety and well-being at risk. If you have violated any of these guidelines and other users have reported you for doing so, you face the potential of having your account taken down by Instagram.
2. Hate Speech Or Symbols
One of the guidelines you may be breaking is posting or interacting with hate speech and symbols. If you are guilty of this, you might have posted a photo or made a comment that attacks someone or encourages violence against them for who they are. Whether that be due to their gender, religion, race, or any other defning trait, you are putting people at risk. Additionally, you may have posted a symbol that does just the same thing. An example that is currently happening is a Russian gymnast posted content that encouraged the war against Ukraine. His actions have resulted in him being banned from Instagram for a year as his content went against the beliefs of the Instagram community.
3. Bullying Or Harassment
Another reason you may be facing a ban from Instagram is through bullying or harassing other accounts through posts or comments as well. This can be as simple as calling someone a hurtful name or encouraging another to harm themselves. Instagram is beginning to take this specifc violation much more seriously and is now offering the choice for you to be able to be reported for entire chat histories. Through the app, you can direct message other accounts and in the past have only been able to report singular messages sent on here. Now, if you are bullying or harassing another consistently through their chat feature, you can be much more heavily reported and be more likely to have your account deleted.
4. Nudity or Sexual Activity
Posting yourself or others nude as well as engaged in sexual actitivty makes you liable to lose your Instagram account. Even if you are willing to post yourself, you are still going against the rules of the app. There has been some changes to violation, however, as Instagram used to take reports of parents breastfeeding as a punishable offense. Even if no nudity was actually visible, Instagram would act as if it was a full nude photo. Thankfully, you can now freely post breastfeeding photos, but all other forms of nudity and/or sexual activtiy will continue to agaisnt guidelines. Additionally, drawings and cartoons of these violations will also be treated as such and get your account taken down as well.
5. Homophobia or Transphobia
Posting offensive and hurtful comments towards the LGBTQ+ community will also put your account at risk. Comments and actual posts that aim harmful messages and spread homophobia or transphobia are against the guidelines and will get your account reported. These infractions are treated very seriously. Past violations on Instagram have led to the deaths of many young users, so personnel take these types of posts very seriously and will not hesitate to delete your account if you are reported for these actions.
6. Minors Involved in Nudity or Sexually Suggestive Content
If you ever post anyone under the age of eighteen in a sexual suggestive way or post nude photos of them, expect your account to be reported and taken down. Even if you have the consent of said minor, your content is still illegal and wrongful under the community guidelines that Instagram has set. Many accounts that do associate with posting and sharing said material often have links to sex trafficking and human trafcking. Due to these heavy implications, expect serious and immediate action to be taken against your account if you are reported for posting any related material.
7. Invasion of Privacy, Threats, and Violence are Examples of Illegal Content
Threatening other accounts or encouraging violence will also increase your chances of being removed from Instagram. Telling someone to harm another, threatening to injure someone, or any other form of potential danger all are violations of Instagram’s rights. Additionally, posting any photos of someone without their consent may result in your content getting reported which can lead to the deletion of your account.
8. Impersonation
Using your account to impersonate anyone is another risk of breaking the guidelines. Whether it be your friend from high school or a famous athlete, you can not post and pretend to be another person. This is very common with celebrities as accounts will pose as said star and ask fans for money or skam them out of other things. These reports are taken very seriously and will result in your account being deleted. Due to all of these cases of impersonation, celebrities now receive a blue check mark next to their account once it is verifed it is truly them. While lower level impersonations may not have this option yet, you are still causing harm to other accounts so your actions will be seen as going against the rules of Instagram.
9. Speech of Hatred
Speech of hatred will also get you potentially booted from Instagram. Sharing any sort of content that attacks anyone or encourages hate against a group will be reported and treated as a violation. With the increase of this transgression increasing across all forms of social media, Instagram has joined in on further censoring any speech of hatred and treating these agressions much more seriously than before by suspending and taking down accounts who are found breaching this guideline.
10. Terrorism
Posting about or engaging with material that is linked to terrosism or supported by terrorist organizations also puts your account at risk of being taken down. Additionally, making it known that you support terrorist groups or other terrorist actions will result in your content being reported by other accounts. This rule also extends to organized crime groups, as well as any content related to or supporting these syndicates. Interacting with any of these materials will register with Instagram as a violation of their community guidelines and result in appropriate action being taken.
11. Spam
Spamming your feed is another example of violating the community guidelines Instagram has set. While this is not nearly as harmful as some of the other offenses, it is still taken seriously and will result in issues with your account. To breach this rule, all you have to have done is have posted a lot of content in a very short period of time or even just interact with various different accounts in a very short manner. Additionally, if you keep following and unfollowing accounts at random but very quickly and in a small time frame, your account will get reported for fraud which can result in the taking down of your account.
How to Make Sure Instagram Doesn’t Delete Your Account Due to Violations
1. Stop Violating Their Guidelines
The easiest way to ensure that Instagram never deletes your account due to violating the guidelines is just to simply not violence any of their rules. Even though there is a fairly large list of things not allowed to post, it is incredibly simple to avoid these things. Their rules only encompass posts that could result in the harm of other people as well as ensure that everything posted is legal and consented. If you are ever wondering if your content is on the border of maybe being bullying or includes potential hate speech, the best thing to do is just not post it. You never know what your words, photos, or videos may entice, so if you just keep posting about your yearly anniversaries and new recipes that you love, your account will most likely be in the clear of ever getting deleted due to going against guidelines.
2. Appeal the Violation If You Didn’t Do It
There are accounts that do commit violations every day and Instagram receives thousands of reports every day. Due to this, sometimes posts and accounts are just taken down immediately so the reports can be handled in an efcient manner. Sometimes, accounts may report you just because or because something you posted was taken out of context. For example, your best friend may have posted a funny caption and you might have commented something like “Shut up”, but in a joking manner. Other accounts who do not know about your true intentions and relationship with the creator may report this comment due to thinking it is bullying. While you and your friends know it is not, the reporter still did the right thing just to be safe. However, you did not go against any guidelines so you can appeal the violation. Appealing is very simple. You will still be able to access the app and there will be a page telling you your account has been deleted. On this page, you will see a blue Request Review button and this will alert Instagram that you are appealing the deletion of your account or post. Additionally, there are accounts and bot that may have reported you for no reason at all. This is an instance where you, again, did not commit any violations and Instagram will review your content.
3 Don’t Use That Instagram Account For A While
If you are getting your posts taken down and receiving quite a few warnings, taking some time away from your account may be the best option to not getting your account fully deleted. You can still use other accounts that have not been getting fagged or warnings, so you can still utilize Instagram. Staying away from your account in trouble will allow Instagram to stop receiving reports and begin to view your account as less of a threat. However, if you continue to use it and post content that gets reported, Instagram will see all of these reports and believe deleting your account for good is the best thing to do.
4. Don’t Interact Or Post Anything That Will Violate Their Guidelines
Avoiding interacting with posts that violate guidelines as well as work to actively not post anything yourself will help you keep your account on Instagram. By liking comments that do things like spread violence, harass others, or even like posts that feature nudity or hate speech, you are putting your account at risk for being banned. Just keep to liking posts of birthday parties and sharing your latest work of art to avoid violating any guidelines. This will help keep your account off of Instagram’s notice for profles that are going against the community guidelines and the terms you agreed to when you frst made your account.
5. Use Another Account For Violating Guidelines
If you do want to continue to post things that may violate guidelines but do not want your personal account to be at risk of deletion, do so using another account besides your main one. All you need to create an account on Instagram is an email which you can make as many of as you want, continually for free. This way, the new account will be the one posting the violations and the one to get reported. Your personal account will remain untouched and you will still be able to use it, even though you are posting content that goes against Instagram’s rules.
6. Block The Person You Keep Harassing So You Stop
If there is just that one account that really irks you the wrong way, so you are harassing them or bullying them in order to get to them, save yourself the trouble of having your account potentially deleted and block the account you can not stop nagging. It is very easy to do this. All you will have to do is go to the profle you want to block, and tap on the three dots in the upper right corner. A drop down menu will appear and all you have to do is select Block. You can then either choose to just block the one account or any other accounts that they may create. It will probably be better for you in the long run to select Block User and new accounts they may create. This will help you avoid them in the future and keep your profle safer from being deleted.
6. Just Look At Pictures and Videos On The App, That Way You Can’t Violate
If you do not post at all nor interact with anything posted, there is no way that your account can get reported and then deleted. You can still get reported when posting, even if you post things that do not violate the community guidelines, by bots and other accounts. However, if there is nothing on your account to even report and you just view other people’s posts, you will be in the clear. You can still enjoy using Instagram without the fear of your account getting deleted. This is by far the best way to play it safe and make sure your account continues to exist on Instagram.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it is very simple to avoid getting your account taken down if you use Instagram in ways that keep everyone safe and happy. As long as you avoid posting content that is related to bullying, harassment, nudity, transphobia, terrorism, and other harmful material, your account will be in the clear and stay on the app. While there is the chance that you may be wrongfully reported, Instagram is happy to help out in these scenarios and right any wrongs that may have been committed. If your account is ever suspended or deleted, make sure you followed all of the guidelines, or report the wrongful removal of your account.
