On the 3rd of November 2019, Instagram deleted my main business account without warning.

Instagram needs to have a proper appeals process (where you actually get a response) for this kind of thing. I have lost all my media, my conversations and contact information for upcoming work which has had a devastating impact on my business.

It is simply not good enough. Especially since Instagram sell their 'Instagram for Business' services as the best platform to launch a creative business, like mine.

It's become apparent that Instagram seems to be deleting accounts of queer professionals, performers, and businesses. Probably a knee-jerk reaction to a couple of benign complaints from people who may not be comfortable with the queer community expressing themselves on this platform.

I can only gather my own information here as I am not able to get any kind of information or response from Instagram, but the trend is troublesome for talented queer people.

To date, I have tried the following:

• All of the troubleshooting steps as suggested by Instagram, which resulted in all of the errors that I had mentioned
• Tried to reset the password using username - it says that user does not exist
• Tried to reset the password using email - it says that email does not exist
• Create a new account and use my old username - says that username is already taken
• Filled out the above-mentioned forms, sending about 20-30 a day
• Upgraded my LinkedIn account so I could message people who work at Instagram, I sent 5 'InMails' to their CEO, Head of Product and some people in the APAC market.
• Tried to contact a couple of media outlets, but they don't seem interested
• Posted my own post in Reddit and nothing really new there, same links and stories that I have seen hundreds of times already
• Sent DM's to the founders of Instagram, nothing
• I even tried to raise tickets using the Facebook Help Centre. I would raise a ticket for any topic I could and ask them for help with this issue. A couple of responses said that they would forward to the right team, but still nothing
• I even went to request a refund on my Instagram advertising. Yes, I had paid to get exposure of Della on Instagram which helped a lot. What a waste of money. Honestly, it's insane that they are happy to take my money and then shut down my account. They denied my request for a refund even given these circumstances.
• Reached out to colleagues at work, seeing is anyone knew someone who worked at Facebook or Instagram. One colleagues sister works there and she even filed an internal case for me, but still, nothing has happened

Full story here: http://bit.ly/instavsdella