Instagram Now Requesting for Government Issued Photo IDs

Last week brought confusion for many of the Instagram account holders who were asked to upload their government-issued photo IDs for verification.  Most of these users initially thought that their accounts had been hacked and resorted to seeking help online to regain their account access.  

The concerned users tried various outlets to ask about the issue including Yahoo answers. Later on, it was confirmed that the ID requests were legitimate and came from Instagram; the photo sharing app now owned by Facebook.

Even more frustration is brewing now that some of the uploaded IDs are not being accepted, resulting in follow-up requests by Instagram to provide even more documentation, such as university cards, driver’s license, even birth certificates, where necessary.

 “This is just a general practice for both Facebook and Instagram to request photo IDs for verification purposes depending on what type of violation may have occurred,” a Facebook spokesperson commented last week. However, no further details could be procured from the official as he made it clear that Facebook management doesn’t like to delve into details of their actions."Unfortunately, I can’t share more with you beyond that as we don’t go into details beyond that."

This latest action to obtain photo IDs have come into action shortly after Instagram updated its term of service and privacy policy on January 19, 2013. The updated policy had scrapped off the option through which Instagram could display a user’s identity, content or account in conjunction with advertising products.

However, some additional bits of language still give it power to terminate a user’s account for certain basic terms, including nudity and harassment. These new terms make the whole account disabling process even more confusing for general users.

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