again, there have been issues using the app all over the world

The Instagram service went down this Thursday morning, with users around the world reporting issues sending messages and updating the app homepage.

According to the site Failure detector, the inconvenience began in the early hours of the morning, with a larger incident recorded after 8 a.m. (Argentine time).

“We know that some people have trouble accessing their Instagram. We are working to get everything back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience, ”Facebook – the company that owns Instagram – said in a statement.

After 10 a.m. social network service seemed to have been restored to most users without knowing the reason for the incident.

What’s new in the app

Instagram announced this week that it will begin asking all of its users to provide their date of birth in the coming weeks to offer its new safety features for minors, which it will be necessary to continue the service.

The platform started asking its users for the date of birth years ago and most have already provided it, but now it will introduce two changes aimed at those who have not yet shared this information.

First of all, it will start by asking for the date of birth when users open Instagram, display a notification multiple times.

Second, if the user sees screens of warning placed on publications with sensitive or explicit content, the social network will ask you for your date of birth before you can view the content. Instagram already shows these screens but so far they haven’t asked for age on them.

This novelty seeks to know the ages of all Instagram users to “create safer and more private experiences for young people” with recently introduced child protection features, like the one that prevents adults from sending messages to minors who do not follow them, or private default accounts for children under 16.

This information also allows you to personalize the experience and apply recent Instagram changes to restrict advertiser targeting options to more people under the age of 18.

What happens in case of refusal

The app, owned by Facebook, also revealed what the user experience will look like if the birthday is not provided when needed.

At first, they assured, it will show a notification multiple times and if you haven’t added the date of birth at a certain point, you will be asked to share it to continue using Instagram. Otherwise, the platform will become inaccessible and you will no longer be able to share posts, publish Stories or send private messages.

Likewise, to detect cases in which users provide the wrong date of birth, Instagram is developing artificial intelligence systems to detect posts with congratulations such as “happy birthday”, in order to know their real age.

In the future, if someone says they are over a certain age, and the technology says otherwise, Instagram will show them a menu of options to verify their age. This work is still in its early stages.

SL