The unfortunate reality is that all these big companies work like that now; they don't want to pay people to moderate manually, so they have all that be run by automated processes that work more to sweep away people the algorithm thinks are likely to be a problem somehow rather than enforcing specific rules. At various times I've heard of content on Instagram I might be interested in, but they don't make it accessible without an account, I'm not willing to make an account or install the app and it sounds like they actively prevent access to third party software so I just gave up.

Maybe it's possible your ban had to do with your pattern of use of the platform; like if you were messaging a bunch of people asking for permission to share their photos, the algorithm may have taken issue with the similarity, spread and frequency of your requests without considering their content or purpose. Ultimately though who knows. Reminds me of when I was banned from Facebook, of course they aren't saying why and of course they aren't giving any coherent response, you can only guess.

I refuse to install IG on my phone and instead use Firefox on Android. I keep getting warning messages about suspicious activity on my account. I've even changed my password to make sure nothing else is using my account. I think their bot detection or something similar keeps flagging my sessions. I mostly lurk on IG but I can tell you I am quite human.

So here you are, on a competing platform. Maybe this really is a better environment to stay in? It is indeed different than IG. You don't expect IG to pay any attention to your post here, right?

While this is not strictly related to this sub, it is relevant because I use my IG account to get content for this community.

Lastly, IG's opaque & unfair appeals process should be a concern for everyone—no organization should be able to suspend or delete anyone's account without giving specific reasons for doing so and the accused party should be given the opportunity to defend themselves, instead of only being given the choice of pressing a button.