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Instagram Bug Briefly Showed Stories Content to Non Followers

Instagram Bug Briefly Showed Stories Content to Non-Followers

By Harpreet Singh | Updated: 12 April 2019 13:34 IST

Photo Credit: Instagram

Instagram Stories were displayed to non-followers for some time, due to a bug

Highlights

Instagram had a bug that showed Stories to non-followers
The company says it has fixed the glitch, and is looking into it
Instagram says only a small number of accounts were affected

Instagram Stories has over 500 million daily active users. The Stories format has worked quite well for Facebook's Instagram app ever since it copied the concept from Snapchat. Instagram Stories allows users to share content that stays up for 24 hours and then self destructs. Instagram users can follow users to see their stories every day. But what if your stories were seen by people who don't even follow you?

In a recent glitch, Instagram Stories content appeared on some users' profiles from accounts they don't even follow. Normally, Instagram users see Stories content displayed on a tray on top of the app. These Stories are supposed to be from the accounts you're following.

The latest Instagram bug caused some users to see Stories from accounts they don't follow. Instagram confirmed the existence of the bug to TechCrunch, and claimed it was resolved in a few hours.

The Facebook-owned app said it was still looking into the problem. In a statement to TechCrunch, Instagram claimed the issue impacted a small number of people.

In case an Instagram account was set to private and was involved in the glitch, no one could see their Stories at least. The issue highlights potential privacy problems people may run into considering the kind of content people normally share via Stories.

As of now, there's no way to make out if your Instagram account was involved in the recent glitch. Instagram might explain what really happened and could choose to notify users if their accounts were impacted. However, protected accounts are confirmed to be safe for now.

Facebook isn't new to controversies around privacy and security. As the world's largest social networking company fights misinformation globally, Facebook continues to battle new issues almost every other day.

Just before the election season kicked in, Facebook had announced it has been removing 1 million abusive accounts per day. The company also claimed it has made headway against online abuses and continues to crack down on misinformation during the Lok Sabha 2019 elections.

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Further reading: Instagram, Facebook, Instagram Stories

Harpreet Singh

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Harpreet is the community manager at Gadgets 360. He loves all things tech, and can be found hunting for good deals when he is not shopping online. He has written about deals and e-commerce in India for many years, as well as covering social media and breaking technology news. More