Some Instagram users locked out of their accounts

Some Instagram users have been locked out of their accounts last weekend, with many thinking they were hacked. This lead many users to take it to Yahoo Answers to see what was happening.

Some users are being greeted by a message which says the following: Your account has been secured and requires account validation. Please login to Instagram.com from your desktop computer to validate your identify.

A user named “moi” started a thread on Yahoo answers which received a lot of comments from users who were also very confused.

“Instagram occasionally removes accounts due to violation of terms and, depending on the violation, may ask people to upload IDs for verification purposes,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNET today.

One user said: “My daughter is having the same issue I have sent them a email as well, I will not be providing any photo ID and if this is really a new requirement they can just delete her account.”

One thing which did shock me though is what Jennifer Van Grove from CNET said in her coverage of this story. She was contacted by a mother who’s son was in tears that his account was locked and he couldn’t get onto Instagram. It sounds like some could do with the break from Instagram, before it comes so addictive that it’s damaging.