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Instagram is an American Image sharing and short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters, be organized by , and be associated with a location via Geotagging. Posts can be shared publicly or with preapproved followers. Users can browse other users' content by tags and locations, view trending content, Like button photos, and follow other users to add their content to a personal Web feed. A Meta-operated image-centric social media platform, it is available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and the web. Users can take photos and edit them using built-in filters and other tools, then share them on other social media platforms like Facebook. It supports 33 languages including English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Korean.
Instagram was originally distinguished by allowing content to be framed only in a square (1:1) aspect ratio of 640 to match the display width of the iPhone at the time. In 2015, this restriction was eased with an increase to 1080 pixels. It also added messaging features, the ability to include multiple images or videos in a single post, and a Stories feature—similar to its main competitor, Snapchat, which allowed users to post their content to a sequential feed, with each post accessible to others for 24 hours. As of January 2019, Stories was used by 500 million people daily.
The Burbn Beta app was made available for iOS on October 6, 2010, by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger — still as a prototype, but for the first time available as a real app on the App Store rather than a web-based prototype. The app received around 25,000 registrations that day, though it remained a public beta. Six days later, on October 12, 2010, the final stable non-beta version was officially released under a new name — Instagram. This renaming gave an even bigger response, it rapidly gained popularity, reaching 1million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year, and 1 billion in June 2018. In April 2012, Meta Platforms acquired the service for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. The Android version of Instagram was released in April 2012, followed by a feature-limited Desktop computer interface in November 2012, a Fire OS app in June 2014, an app for Windows 10 in October 2016, and an app for iPadOS in September 2025. Although often admired for its success and influence, Instagram has also been criticized for negatively affecting teens' mental health, its policy and User interface changes, its alleged censorship, and illegal and inappropriate content uploaded by users.
On October 21, 2009, the first web-based prototype of Burbn was released online, although it was basic and non-functional, it featured a registration waiting list. The first Burbn post was a photo of South Beach Harbor at Pier 38, posted by Mike Krieger at 5:26p.m. on July16, 2010. On October6, 2010, the Burbn Beta iOS app was made available through the App Store, though this was still just a prototype only. The final stable non-beta version was officially released 6 days later, on October 12, 2010 with a new name, Instagram. In February 2011, it was reported that Instagram had raised $7 million () in Series A funding from a variety of investors, including Benchmark Capital, Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca (through Capital fund), and Adam D'Angelo. The deal valued Instagram at around $20 million. In April 2012, Instagram raised $50 million () from venture capitalists with a valuation of $500 million (). Joshua Kushner was the second largest investor in Instagram's Series B fundraising round, leading his investment firm, Thrive Capital, to double its money after the sale to Facebook.
purchase price of $300 million in cash and 23 million shares of stock.
The deal closed just before Facebook's scheduled initial public offering according to CNN. The deal price was compared to the $35 million Yahoo! paid for Flickr in 2005. Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was "committed to building and growing Instagram independently". According to Wired, the deal netted Systrom $400 million.
In November 2012, Instagram launched website profiles, allowing anyone to see user feeds from a web browser with limited functionality, as well as a selection of badges, and web widget buttons to link to profiles. Since the app's launch it had used the Foursquare API technology to provide named location tagging. In March 2014, Instagram started to test and switch the technology to use Facebook Places.
In April 2016, Instagram released a Windows 10 Mobile app, after years of demand from Microsoft and the public to release an app for the platform. The platform previously had a beta version of Instagram, first released on November 21, 2013, for Windows Phone 8. The new app added support for videos (viewing and creating posts or stories, and viewing live streams), album posts and direct messages. Similarly, an app for Windows 10 personal computers and tablets was released in October 2016. In May, Instagram updated its mobile website to allow users to upload photos, and to add a "lightweight" version of the Explore tab.
On May 11, 2016, Instagram revamped its design, adding a black-and-white flat design theme for the app's user interface, and a less , more abstract, "modern" and colorful icon. Rumors of a redesign first started circulating in April, when The Verge received a screenshot from a tipster, but at the time, an Instagram spokesperson simply told the publication that it was only a concept. On December 6, 2016, Instagram introduced comment liking. However, unlike post likes, the user who posted a comment does not receive notifications about comment likes in their notification inbox. Uploaders can optionally decide to deactivate comments on a post.
The mobile website allows uploading pictures since May 4, 2017. Image filters and the ability to upload videos were not introduced then. On April 30, 2019, the Windows 10 Mobile app was discontinued, though the mobile website remains available as a progressive web application (PWA) with limited functionality. The app remains available on Windows 10 computers and tablets, also updated to a PWA in 2020.
During Facebook F8, it was announced that Instagram would, beginning in Canada, pilot the removal of publicly displayed "Like button" counts for content posted by other users. Like counts would only be visible to the user who originally posted the content. Mosseri stated that this was intended to have users "worry a little bit less about how many likes they're getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about." It has been argued that low numbers of likes in relativity to others could contribute to a lower self-esteem in users. The pilot began in May 2019, and was extended to 6 other markets in July. The pilot was expanded worldwide in November 2019. Also in July 2019, Instagram announced that it would implement new features designed to reduce harassment and negative comments on the service.
In August 2019, Instagram also began to pilot the removal of the "Following" tab from the app, which had allowed users to view a feed of the likes and comments made by users they follow. The change was made official in October, with head of product Vishal Shah stating that the feature was underused and that some users were "surprised" when they realized their activity was being surfaced in this manner. Instagram later restricted the ability to view public profiles without logging in, prompting users to sign in after viewing a limited number of posts. Following the change, after viewing a number of posts a pop-up requires the user to log in to continue viewing content.
In the same month, Instagram launched a separate app known as Threads. Similar to Snapchat, the app allowed users to communicate through messaging and video chats. It was integrated with Instagram's "Close friends" feature, so that users could send images, photos, and texts privately to others, and also had Instagram's photo editing system embedded into the app. However, Instagram discontinued this version of Threads in December 2021, mainly due to most of its features being rolled out on Instagram itself, as well as low usage compared to other social media applications. Threads was not well-received among Instagram's user base. Since its launch, only approximately 220,000 users globally downloaded the app, which represented less than 0.1% of Instagram's monthly active users, indicating a lack of success in driving adoption.
In August 2020, Instagram began a pivot to video, introducing a new feature called "Instagram Reels". The intent was to compete with the video-sharing site TikTok. Instagram also added suggested posts in August 2020. After scrolling through posts from the past 48 hours, Instagram displays posts related to their interests from accounts they do not follow. In February 2021, Instagram began testing a new feature called Vertical Stories, said by some sources to be inspired by TikTok. The same month, they also began testing the removal of ability to share feed posts to stories. In March 2021, Instagram launched a new feature in which four people can go live at once. Instagram also announced that adults would not be allowed to message teens who don't follow them as part of a series of new child safety policies.
In May 2021, Instagram began allowing users in some regions to add pronouns to their profile page. On October 4, 2021, Meta services suffered their worst outage since 2008, bringing down Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Security experts identified the problem as possibly being DNS-related. On March 17, 2022, Zuckerberg confirmed plans to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the platform.
In April 2022, Instagram began testing the removal of the ability to see "recent" posts from various hashtags. This change became permanent and system wide a year later, and now hashtags can only be used to see a selection of curated content from "top" users. These changes are ostensibly an attempt to hinder the spread of misinformation, while Instagram has also repeatedly stated that hashtags do not help posts get views.
In September 2022, Ireland's Data Protection Commission fined the company $402 million under privacy laws recently adopted by the European Union over how it handled the privacy data of minors. After being trialled in mid-2022, Instagram introduced Notes in December 2022. This feature allows users to share updates as short text posts of up to 60 characters with certain people, who can then reply to them using messaging on Instagram.
In February 2023, Instagram introduced a new feature allowing users to browse and post GIFs in their comments. Also in February 2023, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would start selling blue "verified" badges on Instagram and Facebook.
On July 5, 2023, Meta Platforms launched Threads, a social network platform connected to Instagram that allows users to make public Microblogging comprising text, photos, and videos, as well as to converse with other users and Reblogging other users' posts. Threads aims to compete with Twitter. In December 2023, Instagram launched a podcast titled "Close Friends Only" featuring conversations among celebrities. The first episode featured rappers Ice Spice and Doja Cat. Subsequent episodes in June and August 2024 featured Reneé Rapp, Rachel Sennott, Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla.
In April 2024, Instagram announced that they would start testing new tools "within weeks" to fight sextortion, a form of blackmail involving intimate pictures sent online. On August 2, 2024, Turkey blocked Instagram after the platform deleted posts from users offering condolences for the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In December 2024, Instagram and MTA collaborated and sold MetroCard ft. creators such as New York Nico, Overheard In New York, and SubwayTakes.
On September 3, 2025, Instagram launched a native iPadOS app, which before relied on the iOS app and did not utilize the larger screen size of tablets.
Since December 2016, posts can be "saved" into a private area of the app. The feature was updated in April 2017 to let users organize saved posts into named collections. Users can also "archive" their posts in a private storage area, out of visibility for the public and other users. The move was seen as a way to prevent users from deleting photos that don't garner a desired number of "likes" or are deemed boring, but also as a way to limit the "emergent behavior" of deleting photos, which deprives the service of content. In August, Instagram announced that it would start organizing comments into threads, letting users more easily interact with replies.
Since February 2017, up to ten pictures or videos can be included in a single post, with the content appearing as a swipeable carousel. The feature originally limited photos to the square format, but received an update in August to enable portrait and landscape photos instead. In April 2018, Instagram launched its version of a portrait mode called "focus mode", which gently blurs the background of a photo or video while keeping the subject in focus when selected. In November, Instagram began to support Alt attribute to add descriptions of photos for the visually impaired. They are either generated automatically using Computer vision (using existing Facebook technology) or manually specified by the uploader.
On March 1, 2021, Instagram launched a new feature named Instagram Live Rooms, which lets four people go live together. In May 2021, Instagram announced a new accessibility feature for videos on Instagram Reels and Stories to allow creators to place closed captions on their content.
Users on Instagram have created "trends" through hashtags. The trends deemed the most popular on the platform often highlight a specific day of the week to post the material on. Examples of popular trends include #SelfieSunday, in which users post a photo of their faces on Sundays; #MotivationMonday, in which users post motivational photos on Mondays; #TransformationTuesday, in which users post photos highlighting differences from the past to the present; #WomanCrushWednesday, in which users post photos of women they have a romantic interest in or view favorably, as well as its #ManCrushMonday counterpart centered on men; and #ThrowbackThursday, in which users post a photo from their past, highlighting a particular moment.
In December 2017, Instagram began to allow users to follow hashtags, which display relevant highlights of the topic in their feeds. The ability to search "Recent" hashtags was temporarily disabled during the 2020 U.S. elections, to prevent the spread of misinformation. In 2022 this was again tested on some users, and in April 2023 the ability to search recent hashtags was removed entirely. Now, users are only able to see a curated selection of "popular" posts using a given hashtag. Instagram said that this is to prevent abuse and so that hashtags do not help users gain views, but it has been noted that using hashtags is the only free method for a user to reach past their existing followers.
In November 2019, it was announced that Instagram would start to roll out a new feature to Brazil known as Instagram Reels. It would then expand to France and Germany. Instagram Reels was officially launched in Pakistan in August 2022, two years after its global rollout in August 2020. It functions similarly to the Chinese video service TikTok, focusing on allowing users to create short videos already set to existing sounds from other clips. Users could make up to 15 (later 30) second videos using this feature. Reels also uses existing Instagram filters and editing tools.
In July 2020, Instagram rolled out Reels to India after TikTok was banned in the country. Then, the following month, Reels officially launched in 50 countries including the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Then in August of that year, Instagram introduced a reels button on the home page. On June 17, 2021, Instagram launched full-screen advertisements in Reels. The ads are similar to regular reels and can run up to 30 seconds. They are distinguished from regular content by the "sponsored" tag under the account name. Despite the "TikTokification" of Reels and the parent company Meta spending millions on courting content creators, user engagement continued to lag way behind TikTok as of 2022. Then Instagram started rolling out a new feature with made Reels up to 90 seconds long beginning in June 2022. After a period of testing, a duration of up to three minutes was announced in January 2025.
On February 26, 2025, Instagram Reels came under fire after numerous users reported a sudden surge in violent and graphic content appearing in their feeds. Meta issued a public apology, stating that a technical error led to the unintended recommendation of such content. A Meta spokesperson explained, "We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended. We apologize for the mistake."
Since its inception in 2020, the usage of Instagram Reels has continuously increased. In September 2022, Instagram Reels generated over 140 billion views daily. The number of monthly users also increased from 1.5 billion in 2022 to 1.8 billion as of 2024. Researchers from the Guizhou University of Finance and Economics and Western Michigan University found that short-form videos like YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels may make it easier for young adults and children to develop addictive behavior because short-form videos provide "short bursts of thrills". These researchers found that college students in the U.S. and China watch short-form videos for entertainment, knowledge, and to build social identities.
The Wall Street Journal reported that some parents are concerned about the effects of short-form videos on their children, as there is no way to disable Instagram or set limits. When children watch short-form videos, they learn to expect continual stimulation and fast-paced changes, which can cause problems when engaging in activities that require greater focus, such as reading. Recent studies highlighted the connection between short-form videos such as Instagram Reels and the brain's reward system, specifically dopamine release. According to Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and chief of Stanford University's dual diagnosis addiction clinic, brief attention-grabbing videos act as powerful stimuli triggering dopamine surges akin to other addictive behaviors. The rapid and easily consumable nature of short-form videos can elicit high levels of dopamine; since dopamine serves as a motivator rather than a direct source of pleasure, individuals are compelled to seek rewarding activities and become addicted to them. Such neurochemical responses lead to addictive patterns and behaviors, entering a vicious cycle. Digital addiction can lead to shorter attention spans and slower cognitive processing.
In April 2017, Instagram redesigned Direct to combine all private messages, both permanent and ephemeral, into the same message threads. In May, Instagram made it possible to send URL in messages, and also added support for sending photos in their original portrait or landscape orientation without cropping.
In April 2020, Direct became accessible from the Instagram website, allowing users to send direct messages from a web version using WebSocket technology. In August 2020, Facebook started merging Instagram Direct into Facebook Messenger. After the update (which is rolled out to a segment of the user base) the Instagram Direct icon transforms into Facebook Messenger icon.
In March 2021, a feature was added that prevents adults from messaging users under 18 who do not follow them as part of a series of new child safety policies. In August 2023, Instagram introduced new adjustments to protect user privacy and prevent harassment and spam. Users can now only receive one direct message from accounts that they do not follow, and must approve the message request before further messages can be sent. This setting can be changed to allow unlimited messages from other accounts that the user does not follow.
In September 2024, Instagram added a sticker editor which allows users to cut out elements of photos and send them privately. It also enabled sticker addition and writing on photos.
In November, Instagram added live video functionality to Instagram Stories, allowing users to broadcast themselves live, with the video disappearing immediately after ending. In January 2017, Instagram launched skippable ads, where five-second photo and 15-second video ads appear in-between different stories.
In April 2017, Instagram Stories incorporated augmented reality stickers, a "clone" of Snapchat's functionality.
In May 2017, Instagram expanded the augmented reality sticker feature to support face filters, letting users add specific visual features onto their faces. Later in May, TechCrunch reported about tests of a Location Stories feature in Instagram Stories, where public Stories content at a certain location are compiled and displayed on a business, landmark or place's Instagram page. A few days later, Instagram announced "Story Search", in which users can search for geographic locations or hashtags and the app displays relevant public Stories content featuring the search term.
In June 2017, Instagram revised its live-video functionality to allow users to add their live broadcast to their story for availability in the next 24 hours, or discard the broadcast immediately. In July, Instagram started allowing users to respond to Stories content by sending photos and videos, complete with Instagram effects such as filters, stickers, and hashtags. Stories were made available for viewing on Instagram's mobile and desktop websites in late August 2017.
On December 5, 2017, Instagram introduced "Story Highlights", also known as "Permanent Stories", which are similar to Instagram Stories, but don't expire. They appear as circles below the profile picture and biography and are accessible from the desktop website as well. In June 2018, the daily active story users of Instagram had reached 400 million users, and monthly active users had reached 1 billion active users.
In December 2024, Instagram announced that it was trialing a feature designed to help users reconnect with content they may have missed from their mutual followers. This new functionality showcases unseen Story Highlights at the end of the Stories tray, which is situated at the top of the feed. By doing so, users can easily access curated Stories from the past week that they might not have seen previously. Importantly, this feature will only display Story Highlights—curated collections of Stories saved by users—rather than standard Stories that disappear after 24 hours. Users will only be able to view these Highlights after they have gone through all current Stories in their tray, meaning that those who follow many accounts may find it challenging to see these updates.
In October 2013, Instagram announced that video and image ads would soon appear in feeds for users in the United States, with the first image advertisements displaying on November 1, 2013. Video ads followed nearly a year later on October 30, 2014. In June 2014, Instagram announced the rollout of ads in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, with ads starting to roll out that autumn. In March 2015, Instagram announced it would implement "carousel ads", allowing advertisers to display multiple images with options for linking to additional content. The company launched carousel image ads in October 2015, and video carousel ads in March 2016.
In February 2016, Instagram announced that it had 200,000 advertisers on the platform. This number increased to 500,000 by September 2016, and 1 million in March 2017. In May 2016, Instagram launched new tools for business accounts, including business profiles, analytics and the ability to promote posts as ads. To access the tools, businesses had to link a corresponding Facebook page. The new analytics page, known as Instagram Insights, allowed business accounts to view top posts, reach, impressions, engagement and demographic data. Insights rolled out first in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and expanded to the rest of the world later in 2016.
In November 2018, Instagram added the ability for business accounts to add product links directing users to a purchase page or to save them to a "shopping list". In April 2019, Instagram added the option to "Checkout on Instagram", which allows merchants to sell products directly through the Instagram app. In March 2020, via a blog post, Instagram announced that they are making major moderation changes in order to decrease the flow of disinformation, hoaxes and fake news regarding COVID-19 on its platform, "We'll remove COVID-19 accounts from account recommendations, and we are working to remove some COVID-19 related content from Explore unless posted by a credible health organization. We will also start to downrank content in feed and Stories that has been rated false by third-party fact-checkers."
In June 2021, Instagram launched a native affiliate marketing tool creators can use to earn commissions based on sales. Commission-enabled posts are labeled "Eligible for Commission" on the user side to identify them as affiliate posts. Launch partners included Sephora, MAC, and Kopari.
In November 2015, Instagram announced that effective June 1, 2016, it would end "feed" API access to its platform in order to "maintain control for the community and provide a clear roadmap for developers" and "set up a more sustainable environment built around authentic experiences on the platform", including those oriented towards content creation, publishers, and advertisers. Additionally, third-party clients have been prohibited from using the text strings "insta" or "gram" in their name. It was reported that these changes were primarily intended to discourage third-party clients replicating the entire Instagram experience (due to increasing monetization of the service), and security reasons (such as preventing abuse by automated , and the hijacking of accounts). In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Instagram began to impose further restrictions on its API in 2018.
Third-party services can be used for unlimited browsing of public Instagram profiles without having to create an account, as well as for anonymous browsing of someone else's Stories. Stories are more authentic than typical photos posted as posts because users know that in 24 hours their Stories will disappear if they don't add them as highlighted (however users can check who saw their Story for 48 hours after it was published). For this reason, they are very valuable for market research.
Since 2017, Instagram has employed the ability to reduce the prominence of accounts ("Shadow banning") it believes may be generating non-genuine engagement and spam (including excessive use of unneeded hashtags), preventing posts from appearing in search results and in the app's Explore section. In a now-deleted Facebook post, Instagram wrote that "When developing content, we recommend focusing on your business objective or goal rather than hashtags". Instagram has since been accused of extending the practice to censor posts under vague and inconsistent circumstances, particularly in regards to sexually suggestive material.
Instagram caused the userbase to fall into outrage with the December 2018 update. They found an attempt to alter the flow of the feed from the traditional vertical scroll to emulate and piggy-back the popularity of their Instagram Stories with a horizontal scroll, by swiping left. Various backtracking statements were released explaining it as a bug, or as a test release that had been accidentally deployed to too large an audience.
In November 2020, Instagram replaced the activity feed tab with a new "Shop" tab, moving the activity feed to the top. The "new post" button was also relocated to the top and replaced with a Reels tab The company states that "the Shop tab gives you a better way to connect with brands and creators and discover products you love" and the Reels tab "makes it easier for you to discover short, fun videos from creators all over the world and people just like you." However, users have not responded well to the change, taking their complaints to Twitter and Reddit, and The New York Times has shunned Reels in particular, saying "Not only does Reels fail in every way as a TikTok clone, but it's confusing, frustrating and impossible to navigate".
Also in 2020, Instagram rolled out a feature titled "suggested posts", which adds posts from accounts Instagram thinks a user would like to such user's feed. The feature was met with controversy from The Verge, which reported that suggested posts would keep users glued to their feed, give Instagram more advertising space, and ultimately harm the mental health of users, while Instagram executive Julian Gutman rebutted, stating the feature was not intended to keep users glued to their screens. Suggested posts received more controversy after Fast Company stated that the feature would be impossible to turn off.
On June 23, 2021, Instagram announced a test change to the "suggested posts" feature. The company will put suggested posts ahead of posts from people who the user is following in the Instagram feed, citing positive reception as the reason for this change.
The slides presented findings from three qualitative studies. The first interviewed 15 monthly Californian instagram users with low body image and self esteem, aged 13-21. The second recruited 10 monthly users for a 5-day diary study, where they recorded their online habits. The third selected 7 users from the diary study for a 30-minute interview. No study was designed to be a randomized controlled trial or case-control, meaning they were incapable of drawing . The WSJ reported that Instagram can worsen poor body image of young people, with girls particularly vulnerable. Instagram has had negative effects on the body image of one in three teenagers. Instagram makes 20% of the teens feel worse about themselves and 40% better about themselves. 70% of teen girls and 40% of teen boys experience negative social comparison. According to the research, Instagram has a higher impact on appearance comparison than TikTok or Snapchat. 13% of British and 6% of American teenager users with suicidal thoughts could trace them to Instagram use.
Instagram responded to the story, saying it "focused on a limited set of findings and casts them in a negative light." Meta defended not publishing its research, saying it was "kept confidential to promote frank and open dialogue and brainstorming internally." In the wake of the backlash, Meta announced it had "paused" development of Instagram Kids. The company stated it was looking into concerns raised by the regulators and parents.
Lub & Trub 2015 showed that following more strangers increases social comparisons and depressive symptoms. Multiple studies have found that increasing time spent on Instagram increases anxiety.
In June 2011, Instagram passed 100 million photos uploaded to the service. This grew to 150 million in August 2011, and by June 2023, there were over 50 billion photos uploaded to the service. In October 2016, Instagram Stories reached 100 million active users, two months after launch. This increased to 150 million in January 2017, 200 million in April, surpassing Snapchat's user growth, and 250 million active users in June 2017.
In April 2017, Instagram Direct had 375 million monthly users.
The motives for using Instagram among young people are mainly to look at posts, particularly for the sake of social interactions and recreation. In contrast, the level of agreement expressed in creating Instagram posts was lower, which demonstrates that Instagram's emphasis on visual communication is widely accepted by young people in social communication.
Although the U.S. government has little direct power to force social media sites to remove specific content, Instagram has on occasion done so voluntarily, especially to avoid being seen as aiding the spread of fake news. On October 30, 2020, Instagram temporarily removed the "recent" tab on hashtag pages to prevent the spread of misinformation regarding the 2020 United States presidential election. On January 7, 2021, following the attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, Trump was banned from Instagram "indefinitely". Zuckerberg stated "We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great."
Instagram has been criticized in India for not taking steps to counter homophobic and transphobic contents. According to the LGBT activist Indrajeet Ghorpade, "Hateful homophobic content in English is removed but the same in Indian languages is allowed to remain on the platform... despite flagging the hateful and homophobic content to Instagram, no action has been taken." In 2023, a 16-year-old queer artist allegedly died by suicide after receiving thousands of hate comments on Instagram.
Instagram has a clear set of rules about what is and isn't allowed on the site. We encourage people who come across illegal or inappropriate content to report it to us using the built-in reporting tools next to every photo, video or comment, so we can take action. People can't buy things on Instagram, we are simply a place where people share photos and videos.
However, new incidents of illegal drug trade have occurred in the aftermath of the 2013 revelation, with Meta Platforms, Instagram's parent company, asking users who come across such content to report the material, at which time a "dedicated team" reviews the information. In 2019, Facebook announced that influencers are no longer able to post any vape, tobacco products, and promotions on Facebook and Instagram.
Similar incidents occurred in January 2015, when Instagram deleted Australian fashion agency Sticks and Stones Agency's account because of a photograph including pubic hair sticking out of bikini bottoms, and March 2015, when artist and poet Rupi Kaur's photos of menstrual blood on clothing were removed, prompting a rallying post on her Facebook and Tumblr accounts with the text "We will not be censored", gaining over 11,000 shares.
The incidents have led to a #FreetheNipple campaign, aimed at challenging Instagram's removal of photos displaying women's nipples. Although Instagram has not made many comments on the campaign, an October 2015 explanation from CEO Kevin Systrom highlighted Apple's content guidelines for apps published through its App Store, including Instagram, in which apps must designate the appropriate age ranking for users, with the app's current rating being 12+ years of age. However, this statement has also been called into question due to other apps with more explicit content allowed on the store, the lack of consequences for men exposing their bodies on Instagram, and for inconsistent treatment of what constitutes inappropriate exposure of the female body.
The Iranian government offered moderators bribes up to $9,000 to delete specific accounts, with Masih Alinejad being targeted in particular.
on May 2021, in The eviction of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, which became emblematic of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle over land rights, identity, and sovereignty in Jerusalem, Users, including journalists and human rights activists, reported that Instagram removed content, limited visibility (shadow banning), and restricted accounts referencing the potential eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem. Instagram denied intentional censorship and attributed the deletion of Palestinian posts to glitches. Digital rights groups such as 7amleh and Access Now argue that the removal of Palestinian content reflects broader issues of digital discrimination and have called for greater transparency from social media platforms.
On October 2023, Instagram labeled some users' profile bios as containing the term "terrorist" if they included the Palestinian flag emoji and the Arabic phrase "Alhamdulillah (, )," which means "Praise be to God." The platform's automated translation system incorrectly interpreted the phrase as "Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom." Instagram attributed the error to a computerized translation system, apologized, and corrected the translation.
As of September 2022, it was blocked permanently, along with WhatsApp, with an exception made for tourists and corporations who request its use.
Following the election of Donald Trump in 2025, various sources noted possible censorship related to the Democratic Party on Instagram and other Meta platforms.
Instagram won "Best Locally Made App" in the SF Weekly Web Awards in September 2011. 7x7Magazine's September 2011 issue featured Systrom and Krieger on the cover of their "The Hot 20 2011" issue. In December 2011, Apple Inc. named Instagram the "App of the Year" for 2011. In 2015, Instagram was named No. 1 by Mashable on its list of "The 100 best iPhone apps of all time", noting Instagram as "one of the most influential social networks in the world."Mashable.com "The 100 best iPhone apps of all time" Published December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 10, 2015. Instagram was listed among Times "50 Best Android Applications for 2013" list.
In 2017, researchers from Harvard University and University of Vermont demonstrated a machine learning tool that successfully outperformed general practitioners' diagnostic success rate for depression. The tool used color analysis, metadata components, and face detection of users' feeds. In 2019, Instagram began to test the hiding of like counts for posts made by its users, with the feature later made available to everyone. In 2021, Instagram announced that like counts would return to be publicly viewable by default. Users can choose to switch them off for their whole feed or on a per-post basis.
Correlations have been made between Instagram content and dissatisfaction with one's body, as a result of people comparing themselves to other users. In a recent survey, half of the applicants admitted to photo editing behavior which has been linked with concerns over body image. In October 2021, CNN published an article and interviews on two young women, Ashlee Thomas and Anastasia Vlasova, saying Instagram endangered their lives due to it having toxic effects on their diets.
In October, 2023, 42 U.S. states filed a lawsuit against Instagram and parent company Meta, accusing them of contributing to a youth mental health crisis due to the addictive nature of the platforms. The lawsuit claimed that Meta and its Instagram unit repeatedly misled the public about the dangers of its platforms and knowingly induced young children and teenagers into addictive and compulsive social media use. Meta representatives replied that they were disappointed with the lawsuit and were hoping instead to continue working with other companies from the industry to create new and better standards for applications teens use.
In September 2017, the company announced that public users would be able to limit who can comment on their content, such as only their followers or people they follow. At the same time, it updated its automated comment filter to support additional languages. In July 2019, the service announced that it would introduce a system to proactively detect problematic comments and encourage the user to reconsider their comment, as well as allowing users the ability to "restrict" others' abilities to communicate with them, citing that younger users felt the existing block system was too much of an escalation.
An April 2022 study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that Instagram failed to act on 90% of abusive direct messages (DMs) sent to five high-profile women, despite the DMs being reported to moderators. The participants of the study included actress Amber Heard, journalist Bryony Gordon, television presenter Rachel Riley, activist Jamie Klingler and magazine founder Sharan Dhaliwal. Instagram disputed many of the study's conclusions.
In 2019, Apple pulled an app which let users stalk people on Instagram by scraping accounts and collecting data. Iran has DPI blocking for Instagram.
In September 2024, Meta paid out a $101 million fine for storing up to 600 million passwords of Instagram and Facebook users in plain text. The practice was initially discovered in 2019, though reports indicate passwords were stored in plain text since 2012.
There was no option for users to opt out of the changed Terms of Service without deleting their accounts before the new policy went into effect on January 16, 2013. The move garnered severe criticism from users, prompting Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom to write a blog post one day later, announcing that they would "remove" the offending language from the policy. Citing misinterpretations about its intention to "communicate that we'd like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram", Systrom also stated that it was "our mistake that this language is confusing" and that "it is not our intention to sell your photos". Furthermore, he wrote that they would work on "updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear".
The policy change and its backlash caused competing photo services to use the opportunity to "try to lure users away" by promoting their privacy-friendly services, and some services experienced substantial gains in momentum and user growth following the news. On December 20, Instagram announced that the advertising section of the policy would be reverted to its original October 2010 version. The Verge wrote about that policy as well, however, noting that the original policy gives the company right to "place such advertising and promotions on the Instagram Services or on, about, or in conjunction with your Content", meaning that "Instagram has always had the right to use your photos in ads, almost any way it wants. We could have had the exact same freakout last week, or a year ago, or the day Instagram launched".
The policy update also introduced an arbitration clause, which remained even after the language pertaining to advertising and user content had been modified.
| +Top ten most followed personal Instagram accounts ! Name and username ! Followers ! Profession ! Country | |||
| #1 Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) | 640 million | Footballer | Portugal |
| #2 Lionel Messi (@leomessi) | 504 million | Footballer | Argentina |
| #3 Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) | 424 million | Singer, Actress | United States |
| #4 Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) | 396 million | Reality TV Star, Businesswoman | United States |
| #5 Dwayne Johnson (@therock) | 395 million | Actor, Producer, Wrestler | United States |
| #6 Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) | 376 million | Singer, Actress | United States |
| #7 Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian) | 360 million | Reality TV Star, Businesswoman | United States |
| #8 Beyoncé (@beyonce) | 316 million | Singer, Actress, Businesswoman | United States |
| #9 Khloé Kardashian (@khloekardashian) | 306 million | Reality TV Star, Businesswoman | United States |
| #10 Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) | 294 million | Singer | Canada |
The most-liked photo on Instagram is a carousel of photos from footballer Lionel Messi celebrating winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup, The post has over 76 million likes.
In 2022, Instagram was the second most downloaded mobile app of the year.
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