On October 17, Meta suspended the official Instagram account of the No Kings Coalition during a nationwide campaign encouraging early voting for the 3 November midterms. Almost 3,000 events were scheduled across the United States. Organisers lost access at approximately 1:30pm Eastern Time. Meta initially blamed excessive posting, sharing, and commenting. The following day, Vice President of Communications Andy Stone changed the explanation, claiming software using Claude AI was reading Instagram profiles, posts and hashtags at 4 times the normal rate. The account became publicly visible again after approximately 90 minutes, but organisers could not publish until Meta restored access at 5:33pm.
Meta censored a political organisation during a national voting campaign, blamed its own automation, then claimed its automated systems detected another automated tool. Meta admitted the suspension was wrong, but none of its explanations account for what happened from a technical standpoint. Tech companies are blaming everything but themselves. Meta’s technology can infer ice cream preferences from decades-old posts, yet cannot explain why it censored a political organisation at one of the most critical moments in its history.
On October 17, Andy Stone wrote: "When accounts post, share or comment at very high frequencies it can trigger automated systems." A day later, Stone offered a different explanation, saying the spike was primarily in the account's "reading" behaviour. However, posting and reading are completely different activities. Independent technical experts warn that tech companies cannot avoid responsibility by blaming AI. The same filters can be used against anyone whose views conflict with Meta's commercial or political interests.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing