Instagram head apologises for a bug that affected users’ stories, highlights, and archive

The timing of the bug had led many to believe that the content was removed because of the content they posted or hashtags they users. Instagram clarified it was not the case but a widespread issue that was later fixed.

Instagram's bug led to deletion of activists’ stories (Pixabay)

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has tendered an apology over a bug that caused the deletion of user posts earlier this week. The timing of the bug had led to backlash from some activists as they were trying to run an awareness campaign about missing Indigenous women, according to The Verge.

Activists raised concerns over the unexplained removal of their posts, questioning whether the posts were deliberately taken down, added the report. Mosseri, however, clarified that the bug had affected Instagram users worldwide and caused problems with the posting of content, including stories, highlights, and archives.

“Yesterday we experienced a technical bug, which impacted millions of people's stories, highlights and archives around the world. For people impacted by this bug, they saw their stories that were re-sharing posts disappear and their archive and highlights stories were missing,” said Mosseri in a series of tweets.

This also happened around National Day of Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This day is incredibly important to raise awareness of this critical issue and support our Indigenous community on Instagram.

— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) May 7, 2021

“Many people thought we were removing their content because of what they posted or what hashtag they used, but this bug wasn't related to the content itself, but rather a widespread issue that has now been fixed,” he added.

This is not the first time Instagram users around the world encountered a bug on the platform. Back in March, Instagram ‘unintentionally' rolled out an upcoming feature to more users. The feature removes the like count on Instagram feed posts, letting the only publisher see it. Instagram has been testing the feature for quite some time. A wider roll-out, however, was a bug, Instagram acknowledged.

“We've been testing a new experience to hide likes on Feed posts. We unintentionally added more people to the test today, which was a bug — we're fixing this issue and restoring like counts to those people as soon as possible,” tweeted the official Instagram Comms account.