Earlier this week, a Twitter user identified a glitch on Instagram where he could see a number of stories of private account holders that he did not follow on the app.
In his tweet, he alerted both, Instagram and the parent company, Facebook, while also bringing Techcrunch into the loop.
His post created a major panic as it was a significant breach of privacy.
Hey @instagram/@facebook, people who I don’t follow (with private accounts) are showing up in my Stories. pic.twitter.com/JY6OUuW8aq
— internetryan (@internetryan) April 10, 2019
Instagram was quick to take notice of the issue and revealed a statement, revealing the consequence of a bug.
The statement issued by Instagram is as follows:
“We’re aware of an issue that caused a small number of people’s Instagram Stories trays to show accounts they don’t follow. If your account is private, your Stories were not seen by people who don’t follow you. This was caused by a bug that we have resolved.”
This statement might underplay the intensity of the situation. However, with approximately 500 million people using Instagram Stories, even a small error could have created a massive impact.
It’s indeed a wakeup call for all those who considered Instagram to be a safe space compared to Facebook.
It’s also a wakeup call for Facebook to realize that they have started affecting Instagram as well in terms of privacy issues.
Contributed by: Mehak Zehra
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