SubscriberWrites:Rise in banning community on social platforms

A banning community on Instagram, mostly teens aged 14-17, exploits reporting systems by creating fake cases to target users, using just a smartphone and internet access.

Logos of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok | Pixabay

Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.

Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/

instagram is a widely explored social media platform around the globe and when it comes to application or platform scaling on big data user interface, it brings up too many seIcurity threats to the user, this is common with all the platforms but on Instagram, this issue is overgrowing and no strict action has been taken till now, Instagram is coming with new guidelines every month, but whenever a term and conditions or guidelines is added there also a loophole everyone finds to use it for destruction

Today In This report we touch on each small point where the security breach is happening. 

On Instagram when creating an user account users agree to the Terms and conditions to obey and post content within that limit only and Many users are doing that but here enters the New Illegal term in this industry “Banning Community” Every platform has some reporting system that is used to safeguard the users positively so that none of the rights were violated of the user. This also opens a gate or shutter where scammers and spammers enter the picture.

What is this Banning community?

On Instagram, there are Artists, Social Media Creators, Celebrities, and different industries individual, and it is not possible of any platform to guarantee to safeguard all the issues that a user faces, this is only a serious issue going on Instagram related to account banning and extortion.

A banning community consists of the users of Instagram, especially spoiled kids aged 14 to 17. As Instagram owned by Meta Quarter releases some forms to report the user accounts directly to a Facebook or Instagram representative about any issue related to privacy, impersonation and others, these banners try to create fake cases open a support request, and portray their case to be true in terms of Instagram guidelines, These only needs a smartphone a sharp mind and an internet connection that is easily available in all of the areas of a country.

Why this is a threat to the security of Instagram Users?

While preparing our report we have connected through multiple agencies that are dealing in India for the management of social media creators, we got to know this issue is growing rapidly on the platform.

Stages of this issue – 

1. 1. A banner targets a Social media creator (Mostly Girls) to ask for Private pictures or videos, and if the creator denies that, the banning community creates a group on Telegram or drops a message on the Instagram Broadcast channel to start mass reporting the creator account, and they fill different forms available to report an Instagram account, “multiple reports to an account flag the account red in the system of meta” (we got this information while talking to a meta employee) In this process they use to bans the account temporarily so that after they fulfill their desires they take the request back (retraction of reports) to make the account available after.
   2. Banners do this for extortion of money of social media creators who earn from the platform with collaborations. They used to ban the account first then they emailed to the creator that they could unban the account if they could pay them a certain amount, usually they charge 10,000 to 2,50,00 INR for account recovery.

• Banners also bans the account at the request of other creators who don’t want their competitor to grow, at the time of reporting we noticed that, there are more than 10000+ accounts suspended for the same reason ( Account authenticity and integrity policy).

How they are doing this?

As we have investigated this in detail we also talked with many banners on Instagram and Telegram to test is they real or fake, we found that this issue is 100% Genuine due to privacy issues and we are not in favor of promoting the tricks they use for banning publicly as it will create more spammers to do that.

We can share some glimpses of how they are doing this all,

1. They use to create fake accounts on the name of the person they are targeting then they use to create fake documents for purchasing meta verified then they use to submit report of impersonation, which is punishable under the law of India, for creating a forged document of any Person that can lead to imprisonment and fine. 
2. They use mass reporting as they have a community of lacks banners joined on their telegram channels or Instagram Broadcast channels, they drop a message or video of screen recording on how to report an account.
3. They used to Send copyrights by creating false documents.

More Information can’t be disclosed publicly as these can backfire on others.

In conclusion, we found that Instagram and the Indian Cyber security team need to take action on these issues instantly as these are growing rapidly after time it is very hard to control these issues. To make a platform healthy for users it is also our duty as a user if we see these kinds of fake accounts we have to report that to the application directly with the help of the report option. 

For Social media creators, it is necessary to help each other, and not try to make an account disabled of other creators, if you want to fight against a community you also need to take action in unity.

(The author Abhinav Ankit is a Cyber Security Professional and Law Student)

These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint