Instagram

What is Instagram?

Instagram (www.instagram.com) is a free social media website with a focus on photo-sharing and video-sharing. On Instagram, users have profile pages with the photos and videos they posted, and other users can comment on those posts, and follow them. To view all posts of an user in the website it's necessary to create an account, and that requires an e-mail address.

Account Creation Issues

Upon trying to create an account on Instagram, you may see the message "Sorry, something went wrong creating your account. Please try again soon." This vague and frustrating message likely means your account was successfully created, but you got instantly banned. More specifically, your account was suspended, i.e. it had a temporary ban.

Although Instagram doesn't tell or even hint at this AT ALL in its interface, it's possible to appeal your ban by logging into the account you just created as if it had been created successfully (because it was). Just go to the login page and try logging in with the e-mail and password you used.

You'll be informed, for the first time, that your account is suspended for violating guidelines before you even managed to log into it once. As one of the largest social media websites in the world, Instagram, like Twitter, is constantly bombarded by bots and malicious users creating account automatically to evade permanent bans. In response, these websites implement these measures that try to catch these bad actors before they even create an account. Unfortunately, the system may flag normal users as bad actors from time to time, which is what (probably) occurred here.

You'll be given the option to appeal your ban, which you would never know you would be able to if you hadn't tried logged in into an account that you would never think was successfully created. The appeal process may include a captcha, confirming your e-mail address again, asking for your phone number, and apparently even taking a selfie with a number.

I don't know for sure because I gave up when it asked for my phone number.

At sign up, Instagram's account creation form told me I had the option to create an account using a phone number OR an e-mail address. I didn't choose to create an account with an e-mail address just to be told I had to type a phone number.

Upon further research, it seems Instagram's random account suspensions are such a huge problem that there are even people on the Internet whose services include trying to get your Instagram account unbanned. And it seems that in some cases, doing the wrong thing to recover your account turns your temporary ban into a permanent ban.