Meta Apologizes for Suspending No Kings Instagram Account

Meta apologized for mistakenly suspending the No Kings Coalition’s Instagram account during the group’s October 17 mobilization, saying automated protections had flagged activity associated with a Claude tool. The coalition said its public account was unavailable for about 90 minutes and organizers remained locked out of its administrative tools for several hours, disrupting a key communications channel during events promoting early voting. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company’s security systems detected a sharp increase in high-volume, bursty requests from a Claude tool reading profiles, posts and hashtags. He said the activity resembled automated bot traffic and triggered protections that incorrectly took the account offline. Meta restored public access after an automated review, Stone said, but resolving administrators’ access took longer. The company apologized for the error. The coalition disputed Meta’s account of what triggered the suspension. It said it had published only a handful of posts in the 24 hours before the account went offline, while livestreaming to thousands, and said the company’s explanation did not add up. The available accounts do not...