How to Protect Your Instagram Account From Being Shut Down

*Disclaimer: We are not lawyers, and this is not to be considered legal advice. The goal of this article is to keep your Instagram accounts safe and help you protect your content from being used without your consent.*

Have you ever found a cute image on Instagram, saved it to "regram" later, and credited the original content creator, thinking you were doing the right thing?

Or perhaps you source quotes from Pinterest and add your unique branding before posting them on Instagram. It seems harmless, right?

Unfortunately, it's not.

You could wake up one day to find your Instagram account has been deleted when you engage in seemingly harmless practices.

Instagram's Terms of Use

According to Instagram’s Terms of Use, you are not allowed to post content you don’t own. This includes posts in your feed, adding photos to Instagram Stories, using someone else’s video, or even sharing someone else's' TikTok videos in your Stories or as a Reel. In Instagram’s own words:

About Intellectual Property

Instagram is committed to helping people and organizations protect their intellectual property rights. The Instagram Terms of Use do not allow posting content that violates someone else’s intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark.

Copyright

Copyright is a legal right that seeks to protect original works of authorship (example: books, music, film, art). Generally, copyright protects original expression such as words or images. It does not protect facts and ideas, although it may protect the original words or images used to describe an idea. Copyright also doesn’t protect things like names, titles and slogans; however, another legal right called a trademark might protect those. Learn more about reporting copyright violations.

Trademark

A trademark is a word, slogan, symbol or design (example: brand name, logo) that distinguishes the products or services offered by one person, group or company from another. Generally, trademark law seeks to prevent confusion among consumers about who provides or is affiliated with a product or service. Learn more about reporting trademark violations.

Source: Instagram Terms of Use

Common Practices That Could Get Your Account Deleted

Here are a few things that could get your Instagram posts taken down or your account deleted entirely:

1. Using Images or Quotes from Google or Pinterest: These do technically belong to someone else.

2. Regramming Without Written Authorization: Even if your brand is in the photo, you don't have the rights to use it.

3. Copying Someone Else’s Brand Elements: This includes color palettes, design elements, font combinations, etc.

4. Copying or Regramming Captions Without Consent: Words are also subject to copyright.

*Note: Sharing someone’s posts to stories is excluded, as this feature links the content to the original creator, making it clear it’s someone else’s.

Why Do Some Accounts Seem to Get Away with It?

This means that a lot of these practices used by Instagram accounts, both big and small, infringe Instagram Terms and Copyright Laws. So why are some people able to take content from others and get away with it? There could be a few different reasons:

1. They haven’t been reported yet.

2. Some of their posts get reported and taken down, but it’s not visible to everyone.

3. They are getting singular posts reported, not the whole account.

4. They haven’t been reported enough times to warrant account deletion.

I personally know of whole accounts getting taken down! I had a close friend of mine who had an account with almost 70k followers get taken down from using quotes from Pinterest. Accounts often get away with these violations because creators:

1. Are intimidated about complaining when they are credited or tagged.

2. Don’t find out that certain accounts are using their content as their own.

3. Don’t think they have the rights to that material.

4. Don’t know how to file a copyright infringement on Instagram.

Protecting Your Content on Instagram

To protect your content and stay compliant with Instagram’s rules, consider the following steps:

1. Create Your Own Content: This is the safest way to ensure you have the rights to everything you post.

2. Work with Content Creators, Photographers, and Writers: Collaborate with professionals who can provide original content.

3. Buy Templates: Purchase templates to customize for your brand.

What to Do If Your Content Is Used Without Consent

If your content, images, videos, or captions have ever been used or regrammed by other accounts on Instagram without your consent, follow these steps:

1. Document the Infringement: Take screenshots and save the links for your records.

2. Contact the Offender: Send a polite DM asking them to take it down, as it might be an honest mistake.

3. File a Copyright Infringement Report: If they don’t comply (and they might even block you), fill out a copyright infringement form on Instagram.

Staying Compliant with Instagram’s Terms

There are many other ways to violate Instagram’s terms, such as selling or buying an account or handle, or using "Instagram" or "Insta" in your account or product names. To keep your account safe, stay familiar with Instagram and Facebook’s terms of use that you agreed to when you started your account.

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Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and content shop to help social media managers and Instagram savvy women entrepreneurs to beat the algorithm and grow their organic engagement (yes, even in 2021). 

This year she also launched Your Template Club, a Canva Template subscription to provide social media managers and Instagram savvy business owners with content templates designed for engagement in their inbox.

Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2017, Manu started Your Social Team with the mission of helping women entrepreneurs and social media managers grow engagement and sales through Instagram without the overwhelm.

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