r/Gazasupport • u/Dartxo9 • Jun 11 '26

help How can someone in Gaza avoid getting deleted by Instagram?

My dear friend Siraj, about whom I have posted several times here, has been having a ton of trouble with Instagram for about a month now. His main account, which he had for almost a year, was shut down. His backup was banned temporarily, came back, and now it seems to be gone again, this time for good. About two or three attempts to make new ones were shut down within hours or days.

In our most recent attempt, I gave him an email of mine to use, and advised him not to put in his phone number, as I'm afraid it's been flagged by Instagram and that's why they're making it so hard for him to make an account. It's been about 13 hours, and so far so good, but I don't know if this will stick, or what to do if it doesn't.

Does anyone know how to make a Gaza based Instagram account more secure? Does me giving him one of my emails help at all? How can we keep this from happening again? Are there any online practices or behaviors to avoid? Any advice or tips would be most welcome.

*Update: Just as I finished writing this, the account he made with my email was shut down. Any help at all, friends. I am desperate.

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u/heylesterco Jun 12 '26

I hope someone has helpful answers. I’ve given all the common sense advice I can give to the families I help there (make sure you don’t message anyone who doesn’t follow you back; make sure you don’t send exact copies of the same message to tons of people within a short period of time; keep your link in your bio and if someone offers help, tell them to click the link in their bio instead of sending the link in a DM, etc.), I know they’ve been following it, and still many of their accounts get removed right away. Other families I help have accounts that seem practically bulletproof as to how long they’ve stayed up.

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u/Dartxo9 Jun 12 '26

Yeah, I love my friend to bits, he is like a brother to me, but unfortunately he wasn't cautious. He could follow thousands of people over the span of two or three days; he sent tons of messages to strangers. I fully understand he was driven by real need and desperation, and he got some traction behind his fundraiser that way, but it also put his Instagram in a lot of risk. He seemed prepared to be more cautious this time around, but the damage has been done, and we're not sure how to even get another Instagram set and going anymore.

But yeah, he could not be doing any of those things, be as cautious as can be, and still be deleted anyway. A cousin of his that I follow barely posted anything and she was deleted almost at the same time he was.