> So you're maybe thinking "Instagram must have a process for this, something you can do when your account is hacked?" and the answer is... kinda, but also it's completely useless. You follow the account hacked form on the website and it just endlessly redirects you to the "I need help logging in" page. If I follow the "I can't login" process for the handle they stole Instagram wants me to enter a previous password for the account, which I can't do because it's brand new (I tried).

My mom got hacked last week and I helped her recover her account and was absolutely appalled at the state of Instagram for this stuff.

* As they said, the official process to get your account back is an infinite loop back to the beginning of the process. If you follow the steps in their guide, you end up clicking a link that takes you back to the guide.

* Craziest to me, the "New Login to your account" email that you get when someone logs in from a new device includes a helpful "click here if this wasn't you" link, but that link is a 404.

* If someone hacks an account without 2FA, the first thing they do is enable 2FA on their own device, and the published process to recover your account no longer works whatsoever. The original owner is not able to turn 2FA off or to confirm it wasn't them. This makes 2FA weaponized as a hacking tool rather than a security tool.

* At this point, the only tool is an automated process where you submit a video of your face to prove it's your account. Online you can find endless complaints by people who run e.g. brand accounts because this facial recognition system doesn't have a face to key off of, and just fails on repeat. Plus I'm pretty sure I could use this to hack an account with a few NVIDIA tools.