Instagram creators say they have lost thousands of pounds after their accounts were suspended or taken down due to fake copyright claims. Extorters have filed bogus claims to the Meta-owned social media platform, then asked for ransoms to withdraw them - knowing repeated claims can lead to account bans. One Instagram user, who has 1.5 million followers, told the BBC he paid a scammer $50 (£37) to get his account back, claiming Meta's appeal process would take weeks, which had previously cost him thousands in lost income.
"We understand this can be frustrating for those impacted, and our systems are designed to protect people from this happening in the first place," a Meta spokesperson said. "Following our review, we have restored the affected content and added additional protections to safeguard accounts against further attempts of this kind." However, content creators the BBC has spoken to say Meta is poor at identifying obviously spurious cases, and say its appeals process is slow to respond unless you pay a monthly fee. The Lost in Time History Instagram account posts historical pictures to its more than 1.5 million followers.
Its creator Olly, who did not share his last name, told the BBC he posts pictures in the public domain or where he has permission from the rights holder. Yet he has received dozens of "obviously fake" copyright complaints so far in 2026. Meta does not check the authenticity of complaints when they are made, so if someone is hit repeatedly, their account can be temporarily taken down.
Olly says he often gets struck for multiple posts at a time, all from the same email address. He then gets contacted by the person asking to go on to the private messaging app Telegram. "They'll demand a certain amount of money," he said - usually amounting to a few hundred dollars - to withdraw the claim.
The BBC has seen messages from the claimants where they demand money or threaten future copyright strikes. This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies.
You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. Olly ultimately agreed to pay an extorter $50 in cryptocurrency to restore his account, which had been temporarily taken down by Instagram.
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