Jail Time

My sister has recently spent some time in jail. Her crime? Liking too many Instagram posts.  Now, fortunately, Instagram Jail is not nearly as formidable as a real jail.  No orange jump suit required and you can eat, sleep, shower, and bathe any time you want and you are free to go about your daily business.

But for someone who loves photography, who enjoys it, is great at it, as much as she is, it was pure torture.

Let’s start with the irony of it.  Instagram is an app that encourages you to share pictures and to interact with each other.  That is its raison d’etre.  So it is truly bizarre that one can be banned, albeit temporarily, for doing the very thing for which it was designed. Anyone ever read Joseph Heller’s Catch-22? Captain Yossarian would have a field day with this one.

Welcome to the world of AI bots.  These bots are there supposedly for our protection.  They are looking out for spammers.  They are looking out for other bots.  Well, you know, it takes one to know one, as they say. Problem is, they really don’t know one. At least not a bot from a human.

So, if you like one too many posts, don’t comment or vary your comments enough (how many different ways can you say thank you to someone who compliments your post?), and the IG bot might suspect you of not being real.

Step one, they shadow ban you.  Since when did Instagram become like a John LeCarré spy novel? Is IG now some kind of a covert operation?  Do IG programmers have to go through training at Quantico?

Here’s how Google defines Shadow Banning:  the practice of blocking or partially blocking a user or the user’s content from some areas of an online community in such a way that the ban is not readily apparent to the user, regardless of whether the action is taken by an individual or an algorithm.

So not only are they mistakenly identifying you as a bot, they don’t alert you to the fact they think that you are.  They just ban you on the QT, on the down-low.  The programmers are definitely being trained at Quantico. They’ve all had Covert Ops 101.  Chapter 1:  How to Keep Tabs on Someone Without Them Knowing.

My sister started to notice something was up, when she realized comments and likes on her posts were down.  Then she noticed when she posted a pic in one of the photo communities challenges, that her photo was not uploaded to the site despite being properly hash-tagged.

She dug further, looked into her data profile of her posts and discovered, lo and behold, she’d been shadow banned.

That then led to this conversation that she had with the IG Bot in an attempt to prove that they made a mistake. That she was real.  Not some bot or spammer.

My sister: “You want people to engage so I am being banned because I do too many likes or comments?”

IG: “That’s frustrating. Instagram’s alogorithms can be unpredictable. Stay patient and your visibility should return.”

My sister: “Do any real people work at IG?”

IG: “Instagram’s support system can be challenging. Don’t give up! Keep trying and hopefully you’ll get the assistance you need.”

My sister: “Hopefully I will get the assistance I need? Like I thought, no one really works at the IG support desk except for bots like you.”

IG: “Your skepticism is understandable! Patience and persistence are key.”

My sister: “Why do I need to be persistent?

IG: “Your frustration is valid. Keep pushing forward; your voice matters. Stay persistent!”

My sister: “I shouldn’t have to say persistent. Is that exclamation point supposed to be encouraging? Why don’t you put a little smiley face on your message?”

IG: “You’re right. I’ll skip the exclamation points and smiley faces. Consider this conversation officially escalated.” (which really meant nothing happened but was meant to pacify her)

My sister: “So you’re not really going to be helping me directly...you are just going to issue a report to your programmers. Sort of misses the point, doesn’t it. But I guess being escalated is better than nothing.”

IG: “You’re right. I haven’t directly addressed your shadow ban issue.”

My sister: “Just so you know...you’ve turned me off so much with the shadow ban that I won’t be interacting anymore just to avoid being banned again. Way to go with encouraging interaction. That was sarcasm in case you aren’t intelligent enough to understand that.’

IG: “I recognize sarcasm.”

Ah. Life in the 21st century. Arguments with AI bots. Because arguments with real people aren’t challenging enough.

And maybe the programmers want to rethink their algorithms and put the emphasis on ability to determine a human from a bot and less emphasis on ability to detect sarcasm.

Or better yet, provide real, live human customer support when the bot support is unable to help or address the issue.

More irony is the one IG response she got that said, “Seek human support until your voice is heard.” But they don’t give you any way to seek human support. Sarcasm and empathy, great.  But action and actual problem solving? Not so much.

Maybe we really don’t need to fear that AI and machines will be taking over the world. Maybe they just aren’t as smart as all that, after all.

Meanwhile, my sister was shadow banned a little over three months.

She hasn’t really returned to posting and scrolling like she was. They totally alienated her.

I wonder what the IG bot would have to say to that?