Article · AI translation
IT Home reported on October 19 that Meta Platforms said its automated security systems mistakenly suspended the No Kings Coalition's Instagram account as a series of demonstrations across the United States reached its peak.
The technology company apologized for the incident and provided a more detailed explanation. It occurred while the group was promoting early voting ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
Meta Vice President of Communications Andy Stone said in a social media post on Sunday that Instagram's engineering team determined the account's “reading” activity had triggered the security systems. On Saturday, a tool from Anthropic PBC's Claude accessed profiles, posts and hashtags in a concentrated burst over a short period, at about four times the normal rate.
Stone said: “This kind of sudden, large volume of continuous access requests over a short period looks more like automated bot traffic than ordinary users browsing the platform.”
Meta said an automated review about an hour later determined that the account should not have been suspended and promptly restored its public visibility, but restoring administrator access took longer.
Stone said: “We again sincerely apologize for this error.”
The No Kings Coalition is an anti-Trump group. The group said on Saturday that its Instagram page had been inaccessible for about 90 minutes and that, even after the page became publicly visible again, organizers still could not log in to manage the account. The coalition said full access was restored at 5:33 p.m. Saturday, New York time.
Organizers criticized Meta for restricting the account during the demonstrations, saying Instagram was a central platform for communicating with their supporters.
The coalition said nearly 3,000 events were held across all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., with millions of participants, aimed at expanding access to early voting and safeguarding election integrity.
Stone's statement on Sunday did not specify which Claude tool was involved, who operated it, or what actions it took in relation to the account.
IT Home noted that this explanation revised Meta's initial account of the incident. On Saturday, Stone had said unusually frequent posting, reposting or commenting had triggered the company's automated systems, causing the No Kings Coalition account to be suspended. At the time, he called the action “clearly” a mistake.
Since Trump took office, the No Kings Coalition has organized multiple anti-Trump protests. The group said it plans to hold a nationwide online organizing meeting on Wednesday local time, focusing on voter mobilization ahead of Election Day.