From 20th of December Instagram is updating its terms of use, but we can see a preview of how it looks like. In this released new version, the social network has listed the content they recommend or don't recommend to do in our profiles.
One of the types of content that is not recommended by the social network are the giveaways. This decision was based on the desire of users of the platform, according a survey. And, needless to say, that was the item on the list that caught my attention the most.
I've done giveaways on my profile myself. Some I did in 2019 were in partnership with UK and USA brands and to be honest I didn't see a really significant result, despite very positive results in previous years, 2017 and 2018.
And I believe that Instagram is advising not to do giveaways precisely to prevent users from being harmed by scammers. There's a lot on instagram nowadays. Today, the platform has more than 1 billion accounts. However, it is not possible to know for sure the number of active users.
Some friends from Rio de Janeiro shared with me the amount of scam they receive on a day-to-day basis. And this scams comes by various ways, email, text message or phone calls. And, what we can say is that this scams also arrived on Instagram.
Increasingly, we see cases of scammers copying accounts and/or contacting contestants. After all, to know who is participating is very simple!!! just see who commented on the publication of the giveaway. They contact these people saying that they won the giveaway and that they just need to pay for the delivery of the prize. It has happened a lot!
Already here in Europe, I saw that some users have reported that their account was deleted after making giveaways. And we know how difficult, practically impossible, is to talk to Instagram. That is, these accounts are hardly recovered.
It happened to me
I've been through a super unpleasant situation myself. Last month, when a customer's account was deleted for violating Instagram's terms, which of course wasn't what really happened.
We were preparing for the launch of her brand and the profile was followed by only 10 family members, the profile was private, we only had 8 posts and no message exchanged. I received an email from the client saying that she couldn't find the profile in the search anymore. She didn't have this account password, just me. When I logged in, I saw the message that the profile had been disabled.
From there, we begin the process of recovering the account. The first step was to send a photo with the code that Instagram provided. After waiting more than two weeks and having no response, I sent a new email.
Instagram responded with the same message as the first email, this time with a new code. With the deadline of the project delayed, I ended up choosing to create a new profile name. Brand launched and we are posting daily.
Last week, when I signed in to her new account, I was asked to reset the password. As you can see from the image, the account was temporarily "locked" for suspicious activity. I've reset the password and added the two-factor authentication.
So if you depend on Instagram for work or make money through the platform, study on the new terms (click here to see) and always agree to the guidelines. Because times are different and you probably won't get your account back.
Welcome to the new Instagram!
