Iraqi Digital Media Center says dozens of Instagram accounts deleted in AI outage

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's Digital Media Center said on Wednesday that dozens of user accounts on Instagram were deleted and deactivated after a sudden platform outage linked to artificial intelligence systems. According to the center, the removals stemmed from a malfunction in Meta's AI-based content moderation tools. The center said the affected systems issued rapid decisions based on false and malicious reports without sufficient human review. A significant share of the deleted accounts had not violated Instagram's terms of use, it added. The Digital Media Center called on Meta, which owns Instagram, to act urgently to fix the malfunction and restore affected accounts as soon as possible. It also stressed the need for greater transparency in AI-driven content moderation systems and stronger human oversight. No immediate response from Meta was reported.