Is Instagram deleting fan pages on December 20? No, that's not true: A rumor has gone viral that the social media network would be getting rid of celebrity fan pages, with the rumors creating panic for the users who run accounts for their famous idols. But a company spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, denied the claim to Lead Stories, saying the policies regarding fan pages will not be changing on December 20.
The claim appeared as a post (archived here) where it was published on Instagram on December 13, 2020. It opened:
In case I count as a fan page I don't want my account to be deleted
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
The post claimed:
If you are a fan page/fan account PLEASE READ December 20 it starts to become illegal to have a fan page. Instagram will be deleting EVERY fan page. It probably will take some time for them to find you though. You will not be deleted UNLESS Your idol (the idle your fan page is for) will need to tell Instagram you have the permission to make it. So like for example <don't delete @addisonraeq they have my permission> PLS be aware and spread this note and send to the fan page as you know!!
Instagram has updated its Terms of Use, with those changes to go into effect on December 20, 2020, but there were no changes to the fan account pages, according to Facebook spokesperson Stephanie Otway. Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012, as this New York Times report details.
"Our Terms of Use update has no bearing on how we enforce our policies as they relate to fan accounts. These policies have been in place for some time and won't change on 12/20," Otway told Lead Stories via email on December 17, 2020.
The claim was made on Facebook posts as well.
Is this a true? Who knows?
Posted by G-Dragon Photos on Tuesday, December 15, 2020
The policy for Instagram regarding Fan Accounts states:
You can create Instagram accounts dedicated to celebrities, public figures, brands, or organizations that you're interested in to show your support or share your opinions of those individuals, brands, or organizations. However, creating an account to impersonate someone is against the Community Guidelines and could result in the removal of your account.
(Editors' Note: Facebook is a client of Lead Stories, which is a third-party fact checker for the social media platform. On our About page, you will find the following information:
Since February 2019 we are actively part of Facebook's partnership with third party fact checkers. Under the terms of this partnership we get access to listings of content that has been flagged as potentially false by Facebook's systems or its users and we can decide independently if we want to fact check it or not. In addition to this we can enter our fact checks into a tool provided by Facebook and Facebook then uses our data to help slow down the spread of false information on its platform. Facebook pays us to perform this service for them but they have no say or influence over what we fact check or what our conclusions are, nor do they want to.)
