{"id":620033,"date":"2026-06-04T03:14:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/620033\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T03:14:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:14:25","slug":"instagram-accounts-keep-getting-hacked-as-hackers-claim-meta-only-removed-a-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/620033\/","title":{"rendered":"Instagram accounts keep getting hacked as hackers claim Meta only removed a button"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

Taylor Kerns \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/p>\n

Attackers are using text prompts in Meta AI to change associated email addresses and hijack Instagram accounts, bypassing two-factor authentication.
\nWhile Meta claims the issue is resolved, users report they are still being hacked.
\nSome developers claim\u00a0the company only removed the frontend \u201cGet Support\u201d button, leaving API endpoints vulnerable.
\nThe security lapse follows Meta\u2019s massive corporate layoffs and reassignments to AI initiatives, which reportedly shrank Instagram\u2019s Trust and Safety division by 60%.<\/p>\n

Meta\u2019s overreliance on its Meta AI support chatbot (and its recent AI-centric layoffs) is coming back to bite it. Hackers hijacked several high-profile Instagram profiles<\/a> by sending simple text prompts to Meta AI that changed the target profile\u2019s associated email address. Meta\u2019s Vice President of Communications, Mr. Andy Stone, stated that the \u201cissue has been resolved and we are securing impacted accounts.\u201d However, it seems the issue hasn\u2019t been resolved, as Instagram accounts continue to be hijacked, with some users claiming Meta has only removed frontend access to the hack while leaving the backend intact!<\/p>\n

Notable reverse engineer and code sleuth Jane Manchun Wong claims<\/a> that one of their secondary accounts with a four-letter username was hacked, despite having two-factor authentication enabled.<\/p>\n

\"Jane<\/p>\n

Wong\u2019s primary Instagram account password was once again changed<\/a> without their knowledge.<\/p>\n

\"Jane<\/p>\n

Both incidents occurred after Meta claimed the issue was fixed.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n

\"google\"google<\/a><\/p>\n

Under Wong\u2019s posts, so many commenters corroborate that the issue is still ongoing. Notably, even Esther Crawford (formerly Director of Product Management at Twitter\/X and currently Director of Product Management at Meta) claims<\/a> that their five-letter Instagram handle was hacked.<\/p>\n

\"Esther<\/p>\n

Meta\u2019s Andy Stone subsequently mentioned<\/a> (in response to another post) that the company had \u201calready secured impacted accounts,\u201d and that some people may receive password reset notifications, while others may be asked security questions when they try to log in.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

However, users of the Bugify Vault Telegram channel claim<\/a> that Meta\u2019s \u201cfix\u201d for the issue was simply removing the \u201cGet Support\u201d button from the frontend UI. This prevents users from easily accessing the hack but doesn\u2019t actually fix the vulnerability, since the API endpoints for Meta AI allegedly remain accessible.<\/p>\n

Skilled users have seemingly moved on to tools like Telegram bots and other scripts to talk to Meta AI and gain access to Instagram accounts!<\/p>\n

\"Instagram<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the motive, you ask? Instagram accounts with large followings are easy targets for their audience reach, whereas accounts with unique usernames are having those usernames stolen (\u201csniped\u201d) and sold later to others who are willing to pay for a vanity username. Given how easy the hack allegedly remains, the incentives are high enough to justify the efforts.<\/p>\n

Meta recently laid off over 8,000 employees across the company and reassigned another 7,000 employees to new AI initiatives as part of its AI push, according to a New York Times<\/a> report. Unconfirmed reports<\/a> suggest that Instagram\u2019s Trust and Safety division has been reduced by 60% thanks to these layoffs and forced reassignments.<\/p>\n

\"Gergely<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve reached out to Meta to learn whether the hack is still active, the steps it has taken to fix the Meta AI vulnerability that allows Instagram accounts to be hacked, and what new guardrails the company has put in place. We\u2019ll update this article when we learn more. Until the vulnerability is properly fixed, there\u2019s no real way to safeguard your Instagram account, even with two-factor authentication enabled.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Kerns \/ Android Authority TL;DR Attackers are using text prompts in Meta AI to change associated email…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,103,1324,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-620033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-instagram","tag-meta","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}