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Comment by jakevoytko | Hacker News Reader

I hate when companies do this. Instagram is a black box for me. Whenever someone sends me a link the web app is completely nonfunctional; clicking links just reload the page, it constantly tries opening the app, etc

The last time I signed up for an Instagram account (2016) it got immediately flagged as a bot account. I think I was supposed to appeal it to have it reinstanted, but why bother if this is how badly they treat users?

Can you imagine going to work as Instagram's web developer, spending your day finding new ways that the app accidentally works and disabling them?

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Imginn.com/whateverrouteoninstagram

So instagram.com/foo becomes Imginn.com/foo

Hope this helps!

I know there are like 5 trillion Instagram viewers. But I've never actually needed to use any of them because there is absolutely nothing so important on Instagram that I must see it. The entire site is optional.

Lucky for you, but many people aren't so lucky.

My kids school puts some information that I need to see (not just "would like to see") on Instagram. Same with the sports team they play for.

I've complained to both about it but change is glacial. I'm lucky in that I know how to work around it, and I do my best to keep others who aren't so tech savvy updated about things they need to know but may have missed.

Irony is they moved most of this info from Twitter/X to Instagram.

What happens if you pretend you can't see it because you are banned from Instagram?

What!? It's the entire, singular purpose and meaning of life for millions of people to make themselves look glamorous on Instagram, and you say it's optional?! /s

I'm sorry that I keep posting this but it gets said often enough that I'm just going to hopefully kill it permanently

People say repeatedly Instagram was a 'great acquisition' (it was. It destroyed Facebook's competition. Great for them, not for users). That Zuckerberg bought it when it was 'barely a company'. That it's somehow not antitrust (Zuckerberg in emails: "Instagram can hurt us"). People loved Instagram. Not anymore, not for a long time. Stop giving him the benefit of the doubt

I would listen to every single episode of a podcast that could get the real skinny, not the sanitized feel-good post-facto rationalization, from founders who had a legitimate shot at being a major player in an industry but chose to sell out during their meteoric rise.

There are messages, by the way. I'm paraphrasing, but it's something like "So, Mark messaged me saying he thinks it would be a good idea if he bought Instagram, what if I tell him no" "He'll go into destroy mode" "What if I <something I forget>" "Then he'll go further into destroy mode"

But of course you can't tell the public this, Zuck's reputation in the Valley. So it indeed becomes the feel-good story about Our Beautiful Journey

> immediately flagged as a bot account

You have to disable all ad-blocking (either extensions or Pi-Hole) in order to make it past that "feature".

did you sign up with your actual details? or were you using a throwaway email and/or phone?

as for using it without an account, try https://codeberg.org/irelephant/kittygram

Actual details.

I think I'm shadow banned from instagram. I can't even log in without weird stuff happening.

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