Outrage as Meta mistakenly suspends ‘No Kings Coalition’ Instagram account: What is this anti-Trump group?

No Kings Coalition, the coalition leaders behind nationwide pro-democracy protests that have drawn millions of Americans to the streets in recent years, expressed frustration when its Instagram account was temporarily suspended during its latest demonstration on Saturday.

The No Kings movement’s account went dark for several hours while protests focused on increasing early voter turnout were underway, sparking censorship fears.

What caused the temporary shutdown?

Meta Platforms Inc. apologised, saying that an automated security system mistakenly suspended the Instagram account of the No Kings Coalition at the height of a nationwide series of demonstrations.

The technology company offered an apology and a more detailed explanation for the disruption, which came during the group’s early-voting push ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, Bloomberg reported.

Instagram’s engineering team found that the accounts’ “reading” activity triggered the security system.

A tool from Anthropic PBC’s Claude was accessing profiles, posts and hashtags at roughly four times the normal rate in intense bursts Saturday, Andy Stone, Meta’s vice president of communications wrote in a social media post Sunday.

“These abrupt, high-volume, sequential requests in a short period resembled automated bot traffic rather than an ordinary human browsing our systems,” Stone said.

Meta said an automated review about an hour later determined the account shouldn’t have been removed and restored it, though it took longer to return administrative access.

“We want to reiterate our sincere apology for the error,” Stone said.

Stone’s statement on Sunday didn’t specify which Claude tool was involved, who was operating it or what activity it had been carrying out in connection with the account. No Kings did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The explanation clarified Meta’s initial account of the incident. Stone said Saturday that unusually high rates of posting, sharing or commenting had triggered the company’s automated systems and that such activity had caused the No Kings account to be suspended.

He called the action “clearly” an error.

What is No Kings Coalition?

The No Kings Coalition, an anti-Trump group, said Saturday that its Instagram page was unavailable for about 90 minutes and that organisers remained locked out of the account even after it became publicly visible again.

Full access was restored at 5:33 pm New York time on Saturday, according to the coalition.

Organisers criticised Meta for restricting the account during the demonstrations, saying Instagram was a crucial platform for communicating with supporters.

The coalition said millions of people participated in nearly 3,000 events in all 50 states and Washington in an effort to expand early vote access and defend election integrity.

According ot the Guardian, organisers remained sceptical about Meta’s explanation that high-frequency posting triggered an automated response, and said members “posted only a handful of times and livestreamed to thousands”.

Senator Bernie Sanders also expressed concerns on Sunday, on X, saying that “billionaire ownership of the media” had resulted in the suspension of the No Kings account.

Connecticut senator Chris Murphy also called for an investigation into the incident in his own social media post, saying it was an indictment of Meta’s “outsized influence” on US culture and politics.

“How were they not ready for the biggest day of anti-Trump protest of the campaign?” Murphy said. “An investigation is warranted, at the very least, to understand why Meta (which effectively functions these days as a private government) was unable to protect protest against Trump, while it spends so much time trying to get close to Trump.”

No Kings, which has organised several anti-Trump protests since he was inaugurated, said it plans a national organising call Wednesday focused on turnout ahead of Election Day.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)

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