Instagram Only Cares About You If You're A Celebrity Or Verfied!!!!

The truth behind what it's like asking Instagram for help.

Elizabeth Renstrom / Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME

We all know Instagram as a place to share our fondest memories with our friends, our family, heck, even strangers! Instagram is a place where you can post what you want, when you want, to whomever you want! But, what happens when your picture perfect life becomes hacked and you have no idea how to re-access your world?

I always thought of Instagram as a safe and secure place to share my life. To me, it was a digital photo book filled with quirky photos and witty captions. Not to mention all of my archived Instagram stories of fun, authentic moments that I could never redo as well as multiple collections of posts from various different pages saved onto my page. All of those memories and moments were saved on my account for me to look back on whenever I chose to.

Elizabeth Renstrom / Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME

One day I was scrolling through my Instagram feed when a notification popped up saying, "you have been logged out," before the app closed itself. I immediately reopened the app to discover I was logged into my old fan account, which I haven't used in months but it was still an added account on my phone. Obviously confused, I logged out of that account and tried to re-log myself into my personal.

When I entered my username, I was told, "this username does not exist." On the verge of a panic attack, I tried logging in with the email I signed up with. Again, Instagram would no accept my email saying, "this email address is not linked to any account." At that point, I knew I was hacked. The hacker had changed my username and the email attached.

Me, a simple 19 year old girl from Long Island who posted seemingly uninteresting pictures of herself and her friends, was suddenly hacked by a random person probably half way across the world. How was this even possible? Immediately after I discovered I was hacked, I took to google to research how to contact Instagram and what to do if your account was hacked.

wired.it

Let me tell you, Instagram is not easy to contact. There is a phone number to call but you are unable to speak with a real human being, rather, you are met with a pre-recorded voice who serves you no help other than to refer to the help page online. Taking the bleak advice, I turned to the Instagram help page online. A serious piece of garbage.

Everything online was super vague and unhelpful to my issue. They were telling me to reset my password. Problem, I did not have any access to my account. They told me to limit third-party access. Problem, I did not have any access to my account. Every "solution" they presented was only if I had access to my account. I was hacked!!!!!! That was my problem!!!!!

After searching long and hard on their website, I discovered a report submission where I could finally report that my account was hacked. I filled out all the information required and sat patiently as I awaited help. They replied within the hour, a good sign, right? Wrong.

9to5Mac

Instagram emailed me back with a code that they said I had to hand write on a piece of paper and take a clear photo of my whole face while holding the code. They said this was to verify a face to the account and prove I was the owner. I immediately wrote down the code and emailed a photo of myself back. After that, nothing. No emails saying we received your photo and are working on the problem. No emails saying we have verified your identity and the issue is being resolved. Nothing.

I slept on the matter, thinking I would wake up to an email saying the above statement. The only thing I woke up to was disappointment and nerves. This hacker has had my account overnight! I logged onto my fan account and checked to see if my account was still there. Luckily it was with no deletes or changes, minus the name. This did not ease my stress though.

Digital Trends

Throughout the whole next day, I sent countless emails asking if they received my photo, if I needed to send in a better one, if there was someone working on my problem, hell, even just a little reassurance that this issue was being taken seriously. With no help from emails, I tried contacting Instagram through Twitter and on Instagram via my fan account. Absolutely nothing came in return.

I checked Twitter in search of others facing the same issues as me and if they found a way to resolve it. I found no help. But what I did find was people with the same issues saying things like, "my account was hacked 3 weeks ago and still no help from Instagram to regain control," and "its been days and Instagram could care less about my hack." In the midst of average day people like myself complaining about Instagram's lack of help, I stumbled across a celebrity that had recently been hacked; Cameron Boyce.

Now, I have nothing against Cameron Boyce. He's a good actor and seems like a really cool and genuine guy. We''re even the same age. Anyway, I discovered that he had been hacked that morning. I kept checking back to see how he was handling the situation, if he was tweeting his frustrations like the rest of us civilians seemed to be doing.

It wasn't until a few hours later that he tweeted a long speech about having his account back under his control. But wait. How did he regain control over his account so quickly when I had been hacked almost 24 hrs ago and nothing? That's where this story starts.

Franny R.

You see, Cameron Boyce is a famous actor with a verified account. Me, I am a non verified College student. Though our career paths were different, as were our incomes, what was the divide? I'm 19. He's 19. I was hacked. He was hacked. I don't see why his account was back in his control yet mine seemed to not even be of concern for Instagram.

Let me state the obvious. Instagram does not care about me. I don't make it any money. I don't give it any promotion. I'm just an unverified girl with 400 followers in a world of over 7 billion people. I was smaller than an ant to them.

I'm usually a very calm and patient person but this seemed outrageous! First of all, my account was hacked!!! You would think Instagram would take serious precaution over this issue being that (1) it's illegal and (2) it's a breach of my security (something Instagram tries to prevent).

The fact that nobody is taking this issue seriously, or at least communicating through the problem with me, is seriously concerning and frustrating! I have been a loyal user of the app for years but oops, I'm not a celebrity or verified so my problem doesn't matter! Wrong! On my many levels! My account is just as valuable as any celebrities!

SHE mazing

This is not the first time Instagram has favored verified accounts. Various celebrities get hacked all the time and their accounts are up and running in no time! It's unfair and completely bias! My account means so much to me and the lack of help and concern from the team behind Instagram is a load of bull! I know for a fact that if I was verified my account would be secure and back in my control!

This is a public service announcement to Instagram: get your shit together and start caring about the community you're trying to create! Stop your bias and favoritism to verified accounts that are "making you money!" You are an app being used widely by the general public and without us "average" people, no one would be on this app! Stop making it impossibly for people to reach you for help! Start taking matters like hacking into serious consideration! This should be a top priority for yours to take care of regardless of verification!

I hope this article reaches the very top of the Instagram team and it puts the world into perspective! Make your app more secure and make it easier to reach you or I can promise you, you will be losing users over stupid shit like this!