Instagram Community Terms of Use FAQs

April 19, 2018

Our Terms of Use are an important agreement we make with you about our Service, outlining our commitments to you and what is and isn’t allowed. We’ve tried to write our Terms in simple language, but we know you might have questions. We’ve tried to answer some of those questions here. This is not meant to replace our Terms, and we don’t address everything about our Terms here. We just try to address a few of the things we thought you might care most about. Read the full Terms.

What are our Terms of Use?

Our Terms set out our obligations to you and your obligations to us.

What do the Terms of Use cover?

The agreement covers a lot of things, including a description of Instagram, the Service we provide to you, our commitments to you as a user and the permissions you give and rights we each have. We also give you information about when we could remove your content or shut down your account and how we handle any disputes if they arise.

The Terms say you have to be 13 to be on Instagram. What if I’m younger than 13, but my parent/guardian allows me to use Instagram?

You must be at least 13 to use Instagram, even if your parent or guardian approves your use of the app. If you want to report someone on Instagram who is under 13, you can do that here.

What are my obligations on Instagram under the Terms of Use?

Everyone on the Service is prohibited from doing the following:

  • Being deceptive, or doing anything unlawful, misleading or fraudulent, or violating someone else’s rights (including using their content without permission).
  • Violating our Community Guidelines, which prohibit things like spam, harassment and nudity.
  • Creating fake accounts or collecting information you aren’t supposed to have access to, or buying, selling or transferring accounts (or parts of accounts, e.g. likes and followers), or logging into other people’s accounts.
  • Using a domain or URL in your username.
  • Interfering with how the site operates. For example, sending malware.
  • Violating our other policies relating to our business tools. For example, you can’t use our Instagram API to spam people.

Who owns my content if I agree to the Terms of Use?

You do. You give us permission to use your content in certain ways that are all described in our Data Policy, including things like displaying your posts to your chosen audience, and processing your hashtags so others can find your content when they search. But we don’t own any of your content.

How is my information used with ads?

In our Terms, we get permission to use information about your activity to show how you interact with sponsored content, like ads, just the way we do on a regular post. For example, we might show your followers that you liked or commented on an ad. But right now we only do this for users that have a Facebook account and are over 18. Facebook users can turn this off in their Facebook settings, in the section called “Ads with your social actions.” Learn more here.

When might you remove my content or restrict my account?

We might remove your content or restrict or delete your account if, for example, you violate our Terms or Community Guidelines.

What happens if I don’t accept the Terms?

Our Terms set out the service we provide to you, and what we require of our community members. It covers the commitments we think are needed to achieve a safe, inclusive and innovative service. We require everyone to accept those commitments in order to use the service. If you don’t want to accept them, you can always download your data and delete your account.