Donald Trump apologizes for suspending No Kings Instagram account

Participants in a “No Kings” demo in Salem, Oregon

The Facebook group Meta has apologized for having suspended the Instagram account of the protest movement »No Kings« at the weekend. Meta attributed the blocking to a sharp increase in account activity that looked more like automated bot traffic than human exchange.

On Saturday, protesters gathered at thousands of events across the United States to denounce President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation measures, the war in Iran and other policies as part of the third round of “No Kings” rallies. Voters should also be mobilised for the midterm elections on 3 November.

The Instagram account “nokingscoalition” used by the organizers and participants was offline for more than an hour. According to Meta spokesman Andy Stone, it took longer to fix issues when organizers accessed the accounts. “If accounts publish, share or comment very frequently, this can trigger automated systems,” says Stone. This activity led to the automated protection mechanisms wrongly taking the account of “No Kings” offline. “Once again, we sincerely apologize for this mistake,” Stone said.

When accounts post, share or comment at very high frequencies it can trigger automated systems. That's what happened with the No Kings IG account in the lead up to today's day of action. Unfortunately, that automated action was clearly taken in error. Everything is now working as...

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The organizers of the rallies are not satisfied with the apology. “The explanation of Meta is still not conclusive,” says the Instagram account of “nokingscoalition”. In addition to the blocking of the Instagram account, there were reports that content about “No Kings” and early voting on the meta-platforms was not accessible, restricted or appeared to be suppressed. A few weeks before an election, an apology is not enough. The public needs answers, accountability and concrete safeguards.

Senator Bernie Sanders also raised concerns about X, saying that “billionaire media control” had led to the account being blocked.

Nationwide, more than 3,000 protest events were planned in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Minneapolis. Instead of large rallies, the organizers this time mainly relied on auto corsos, concerts and neighborhood meetings.

Also read: Donald Trump appears in front of supporters at a campaign rally in Swing State Georgia. For them he is infallible.