On Friday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri addressed the recent moderation issues affecting Instagram and Threads users, where accounts were disabled, posts disappeared, and other disruptions occurred. Contrary to initial assumptions, Mosseri clarified that the mistakes were not caused by faulty AI systems but by human moderators.
In a post on Threads, Mosseri explained that errors were traced back to content reviewers making decisions without sufficient context on how conversations unfolded, which led to mistakes. He emphasized that these were “people, not automated systems,” making the wrong calls. Instagram is now working on providing reviewers with better tools to reduce such errors.
Read More: Top Platforms to Sell Crypto in Nigeria: A Guide to Secure Bitcoin Transactions
In response to a comment on the thread, Mosseri further clarified that Instagram had built a tool to give moderators context, but it malfunctioned, leading to the issues. “That’s on us,” he admitted.
However, this explanation doesn’t fully address all the problems users faced. Some accounts were incorrectly labeled as belonging to users under 13 and subsequently disabled, raising questions about how human moderators could have made such assumptions. Even when users submitted ID verification, their accounts remained locked, as reported by The Verge.
Instagram told Dandali that not all the issues stemmed from human error. The company pointed to the broken tool and noted that certain problems, such as flagging users as underage, were still under investigation.
Users also reported other problems, such as their posts being downranked or marked as spam, despite being well-known figures with large followings. For instance, former Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg saw his engagement on Threads plummet from hundreds of likes to nearly zero within a day. Social media strategist Matt Navarra also noticed a sharp decline in engagement and follower growth across the platform.
Amid these troubles, competing social network Bluesky seized the opportunity to attract frustrated users, promoting its platform via a Threads account.
“We’re working to provide a safer experience, and we need to do better,” Mosseri said, acknowledging the ongoing issues. He concluded by thanking users for their patience and encouraging them to keep providing feedback.
