Meta says Claude tool activity triggered No Kings Instagram suspension

Meta said on Oct. 18 that a security system mistakenly suspended the No Kings Coalition’s Instagram account during its Oct. 17 demonstrations across the United States after activity by a Claude tool resembled bot traffic. The interruption affected a channel organisers said was important for reaching supporters during an early-voting push ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Why Meta says the account went offline

Meta communications vice-president Andy Stone said the tool accessed profiles, posts and hashtags at roughly four times the normal rate, in intense bursts. Those rapid, sequential requests triggered an automated protection, he said. Meta has not identified the specific Claude tool, who operated it or what it was doing in connection with the account.

Meta’s explanation changed in detail after the suspension. Its initial account described an automated action triggered when an account posts, shares or comments at high frequency. Stone’s later account pointed instead to high-volume reading activity. The Guardian reported that organisers said their members had posted only a handful of times and livestreamed to thousands; that response addressed posting activity, while Stone’s later explanation concerned reading requests.

How long organisers lost access

The coalition said its Instagram page was unavailable for about 90 minutes on Oct. 17 and that organisers remained locked out after the page became publicly visible again. It said full access returned at 5:33 p.m. New York time that day. The interruption came while demonstrations were under way, when organisers were using Instagram to communicate with supporters.

The coalition criticised the restriction during its election turnout work. The Guardian reported its statement that ‘restricting communications about voting in the middle of an election is unacceptable.’ The coalition said millions participated in nearly 3,000 events across all 50 states and Washington; those participation figures are the organisers’ account.