gdpr
Semi-banned from instragram - Rights under GDPR?
<p>I'm mostly out of my depth here and have no knowledge about this. I'll try to make it short and to the point.</p>
<p>I use my instagram account for posting pictures of my vacations and the occasional picture of some delicious food.</p>
<p>Sometime ago, my account was &quot;muted&quot;: I can follow account and post new photos but that is it. I can't like photos, comment or even add comments to my own pictures!</p>
<p>I tried reading the FAQ but it was not helpful. I tried to ask for help using the in-app help and got nothing. I tried looking for an email to try and contact someone but never found a single email of contact.</p>
<p>Big corporations (instagram, facebook, twitter, ...) can do what they want and I know that I'm basically powerless in a situation like this, I accept this.</p>
<p>I'd like to open a new account (not sure if I'm really allowed to after having the first one &quot;muted&quot;), but without knowing why this happened,  it might happen again. The thing is, I have no idea about what happened and since I can't speak to anyone, I have no way to know.  So:</p>
<ol>
<li>Do you see a way for me to learn more about my situation? I'm not even speaking about saving my account,</li>
<li>Under GDPR, as a European citizen, do I have the right to ask for this info? If so, how?</li>
</ol>

<p>First of all, under the GDPR it does not mater at all what your citizenship is. It does matter where you are physically located. If you are located in one of the EU countries at the moment, the GDPR probably applies, if the Controller is also locate in the EU, or the service targets the EU.</p>
<p>Under <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/art-15-gdpr/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GDPR article 15</a> you have a right to get copies of any personal information the Controller has about you. Specifically:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning him or her are being processed, and, where that is the case, access to the personal data and the following information:</li>
</ol>
<p>1 (a) The purposes of the processing;</p>
<p>1 (b) the categories of personal data concerned;</p>
<p>1 (c) the recipients or categories of recipient to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed, in particular recipients in third countries or international organisations;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and other information not relevant here. Section 3 goes on to say:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol start="3">
<li>The controller shall provide a copy of the personal data undergoing processing. 2For any further copies requested by the data subject, the controller may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs. 3Where the data subject makes the request by electronic means, and unless otherwise requested by the data subject, the information shall be provided in a commonly used electronic form.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>Nothing says that the Controller needs to explain its policies for granting or denying privileges on the site, or what its rules are or how they work. Indeed it doesn't even have to have rules, it can make such decisions on whim if it chooses to.</p>

<p>While the wording of the GDPR is fairly fluffy in places, and still requires considerable testing in court, you may be able to force Instagram to tell you why you have been restricted and allow you to contest that decision given that it was probably made by or involved an automated process at some point (either your account was restricted automatically based on your activity, or it was flagged up to a human for consideration, but in either case a decision was made by an automated process based on your data).</p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/art-22-gdpr/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GDPR Article 22</a> &quot;Automated individual decision-making, including profiling&quot; Section 1 , you have the following right:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The data subject shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her or similarly significantly affects him or her.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It can definitely be argued that this restriction &quot;affects&quot; you, but it can also be argued that its not &quot;significant&quot; enough - but its worth trying.</p>
<p>Section 3 of the above linked article gives you the following right:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the cases referred to in points (a) and (c) of paragraph 2, the data controller shall implement suitable measures to safeguard the data subject’s rights and freedoms and legitimate interests, at least the right to obtain human intervention on the part of the controller, to express his or her point of view and to contest the decision.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Points (a) and (c) of paragraph 2 refer to what legal basis the controller carried out the processing under, and in your case its almost definitely going to be &quot;consent&quot; which would fall under (c), so you can try and use this Section to involve a human at Instagram, get more information on the decision and ultimately contest the decision.</p>
<p>As to how you force Instagram to respond - involve your countries national body for enforcing individuals data protection rights,</p>
