(WTXL) -- Several users of Instagram, a social media app owned by Facebook, reported Thursday evening that their accounts had been deleted or disabled, but the reason is still a mystery.
Though they may not have been able to access one social media outlet, they quickly turned to another for answers. Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with people looking for answers, like this tweet from user Cedessss (@thisgirlisfancy):
"Soooo, my instagram got deleted.. -_- am I the only person this happened to?"
People also turned to the Yahoo Answers for the solution, as evidenced by this question from user Hanna:
"Why is my account on Instagram disabled? I never posted any bad pictures on instagram and never cyber bullyed anyone ... Im literally in tears, instagram had all of my memories and photos and now its all gone."
From photos posted on Twitter, it appears that when the user tried to lock in, the site would display a message indicating their account had been disabled due to Terms of Service conditions. This led to speculation that the social media site was clearing out spam or non-human users.
Other speculation included that users could protect their account by using the Instagram camera to take a picture or using hashtags like #Dontdeletemyaccount under their posts. This method is being perpetuated by Instagram users claiming to be staff of the social media site.
According to MarketingLand.com, this lead to a widespread panic and thousands of posts under similar hashtags. There is no official notice on Instagram blogs, or their Twitter page, about any plan or method to verify user accounts.
Other rumors place hacking group "Anonymous" as a mastermind behind the cull.
Whatever the reason, Instagram officials has been relatively silent on the issue. According to the Instagram blog and their Twitter page, they have not released a statement or explanation regarding the deletions, though some disabled users report their accounts have been restored. If your account has been wrongfully deleted, you can contact Instagram by clicking here.
