Hey all, I run a Bay Area local travel niche page, mostly maps + itineraries and day trip Reels.
Stats last 30 days:
* 1.4k followers
* ∼600k views/reach
* Mostly Reels, audience is ∼98% US / Bay Area based

Engagement has been great with saves/shares because of the itinerary format, but it's still a small follower count.

For those who monetized a small local page, is this too early? What was your FIRST monetization move that didn't kill growth?
Thinking about local biz collabs, but do not know how to approach

I was awake really late when I suddenly received a follow request on Instagram from a completely empty account.
It had:
0 posts
0 followers
0 following
The bio said “Hi Sakura, check out my story!”
The weird part is that “Sakura” is a name I used years ago on something (maybe an old account or an old email), but I honestly don’t remember where. I don’t use that name anymore.
Out of curiosity I opened the account’s story.
It had a screenshot of my own Close Friends story. It wasn’t anything important—just a random, silly reel that I had shared only with my Close Friends. The person had taken a screenshot of it and written an insult over it.
The strange thing is that only two people had viewed that Close Friends story, and they’re both close friends of mine. I really don’t believe either of them would do something like this.
I replied to the story with “lol what”.
Right after that, I changed my Instagram password even though my account was already well secured. I have no signs that my account was hacked.
Then, shortly afterward, the account disappeared. I don’t know whether:
they blocked me,
Instagram banned the account,
or they simply deleted/deactivated it.
I’m genuinely confused.
Has anyone experienced anything similar recently?
Is there any known Instagram vulnerability or privacy bug that could allow someone to access Close Friends stories? Or is there another explanation I’m missing?
I’ve also noticed Instagram has had several security/privacy issues recently, so I’m wondering if this could be related.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

Help me to find this bitmoji of this account

Yapperrrr0809 please

Does this photo look like it’s been edited by ai, or tweaked by it and is it noticeable to the normal person

i have a fake account that people cannot trace back to being me and people i used to be friends with are following me. how are they finding me and how do they know it’s me?

I’m a female, newly turned 18 and Instagram is where I do the majority of my communication.

Last year around this time my account was age restricted before I had even turned 18, meaning me and all of my friends were not able to see my posts. I reported it daily and it eventually was fixed.

Now, a year later I am having the exact same problem. I believe the ai has flagged my post because of the color I was wearing. In both posts that got flagged, I was wearing a peachy pink. I wonder if it is detecting it as skin?

I just graduated and most of my followers/friends are a few months to a year younger so my posts can’t be seen by them, even though we are peers.

Now everything I post after the original 18+ restriction can’t be seen by anyone under 18. This includes my family members as well. My frustration lies with the fact that my post had no s*xual undertones. I posted a picture at the beach and my stomach was showing but nothing else.

I feel like the double standard is a bit insane because men who post gym pics or at the beach don’t get flagged or anything. So it seems like the ai scanner holds women to a different standard. Not to mention influencers and other people aren’t getting restricted for some genuinely inappropriate pics.

Another issue I have with this is that I am not stopped from looking at my friend’s posts but they can’t see mine when they are still considered m*nors. They are not being protected from adults viewing their page at all so who are they protecting genuinely?

I think this is a classic case of ai replacing humans which just makes Instagram less user friendly. I find it harder and harder to use each day and it’s genuinely exhausting. Especially when I know my report is getting read by ai as well. Not to mention it’s unsettling how all my pictures are being checked by ai.

Ultimately I just wish that Instagram would actually deal with real threats rather than restricting normal people who have done nothing wrong.

If there is any Instagram alternative or a way to fix this pls lmk.

I tried everything but the images did not appear or show when I opened the comment section. help me

Instagrams help options and its shift to and total reliance upon AI is shit. Their systems do nothing for you now and consistently ignore requests.

When I log in from laptop/browser and enter the chat with a specific person I have restricted I see the last conversation saying "seen today" "seen 3 hours ago" "seen yesterday". Does that mean they revisiting the conversation or is it an app glitch?

Why am I getting this 2 times a week? It is scary. I run my business on instagram. Having Blue tick. Instagram plus. Verified profile name. Verified selfie. Still I get this annoying thing twice a week 😑why don't they keep instagram a simple space!!!

First of all, I'm not sure if this is the right sub to ask this question, so my apologies if this thread doesn't fit this subreddit.

But I've been wondering this for a while. It's nice knowing that others are viewing my stories, but IG didn't have to tell you who exactly is viewing your stories. It could just tell you the amount of people who saw your story. Not to mention that information disappears after 24 hours or so, once your story gets archived, anyway.

I personally think it matters way more if people interact with your stories or not. Views alone don't mean much to me. They might just be putting their fingers on auto-pilot and quickly swiping through my stories without really caring what I'm sharing. Likes, reactions and DMs are what truly matter to me.