one day i had instagram accounts. yes, plural. (serial entrepreneur here, sorry, it’s a sickness!).
the next day? i only had one and tbh i’m holding onto it for dear life. (yes it’s verified – ew and lol and ew again. 🤢 lot of good that does me. paying these guys is very life-sucking).

there was no warning or human review. their AI mod system just decided i was guilty. 🤖
and here’s the kicker: i can’t create ANY new accounts. try to make one? instantly banned. did you know they can ban your device and ip address?? well, they can.

this isn’t just me (welcome to the hellscape)

go to reddit. seriously. right now.
check out r/instagram or r/fixmyinstagram.
it’s a support group for the algorithmically damned.
tons of people including small business owners, artists, photographers, designers – just regular humans just trying to exist online & all caught in the same kafka-esque nightmare. 🪳

scroll for 5 minutes and you’ll see the pattern:
→ AI flags something (often incorrectly)
→ account gets nuked
→ no human ever reviews it
→ support is a black hole – (unless you’re verified but even then – it’s not often helpful).
→ your business/community/livelihood just… gone
meta fired most of their human moderation team and replaced them with AI.
and the AI? it’s bad and it sucks.

here’s what you don’t realize until it happens

you don’t own your instagram account.
or your facebook page.
or tiktok or the lemon thing🍋.
you’re renting. and your landlord is literally a machine that:
makes mistakes constantly
has no accountability
can’t be appealed to
doesn’t care if you’re verified
doesn’t care if you followed all the rules
doesn’t care if you’ve been there for 10 years

every connection you made? every client you found? every photo you posted? it all lives on a server you don’t control & that you can get locked out of.
(and before you say “just don’t break the rules” , i DIDN’T. and it didn’t matter. the AI thought i did. and there’s no human to correct it.)

what i learned (while actively losing my mind)

lesson 1: verified means nothing
i have the little blue checkmark. verification is just a badge that says “meta took my $15/month”
lesson 2: platform dependency will destroy you (okay, a little dramatic but still)
when your business lives on instagram, you’re one false flag away from losing everything. one bad algorithm day away from digital eviction. one automated decision away from starting over. and you can’t even find out what you did wrong. (probably because you didn’t do anything.)
lesson 3: community ≠ followers
i had connections. people who had found me and were chatting about working together. but when my accounts disappeared, i couldn’t reach them. no email addresses. no backup plan. no way to say “hey i still exist.” (yeah, that’s on me. i should have been better prepared but i wasn’t).
lesson 4: the old way was right
mailing lists? flyers? we knew how to do this. then socials made it easy and we forgot.

what i did (am doing) about it

hey!curbside exists – because i wanted a direct line to my community. no middleman or weird rules. and while i was at it, i wanted to help other people do the same.

you don’t need 10k followers

you really just need 10 people who will actually open your emails. and a space that doesn’t rely on someone else.

my instagram might get nuked tomorrow

honestly, it probably will. my verified account…..(the last one standing!) could disappear any second. and you know what? i’ll be fine. because i own my corner now.
i have my website, and my email list, plus my little community hub that meta can’t take away. it’s mine.

want to build your own safety net?

let’s talk. because if you’re reading this and thinking “this would never happen to me”…..well 😬.

this is about owning your space online.
something solid. something yours.
something that can’t vanish because a machine changed its mind.
Things like:
🏠 a website is your home base. permanent.
💬 an email list is your people. reachable.
📱 social media is fine is small doses – but it shouldn’t be where your business lives.

💾 made with heart, html, & spite 😈
🧷 chat with melissa & riso

p.s. seriously, go look at r/instagram. it’s happening to EVERYONE. build your exit strategy now.