The Instagram account for the No Kings movement went dark for several hours on Saturday during a series of nationwide protests, The Guardian reports. Organizers regained control of their account on Sunday, but the group remains skeptical of the explanation provided for the sudden suspension. The No Kings Coalition posted on their Instagram page on Sunday, “We have regained access to our accounts, but Meta still owes us an explanation. Restricting communications about voting in the middle of an election is unacceptable.”
The movement, which has drawn millions of people to the streets in recent years, held protests on Saturday focused on increasing early voter turnout. Meta blamed the temporary shutdown on an automated action that triggers when accounts post, share or comment at very high frequencies. A Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, wrote on X on Saturday, “Unfortunately, that automated action was clearly taken in error. Everything is now working as it should and we sincerely apologize.”
In a more detailed statement, Stone explained that the high volume of reading profiles, posts and hashtags in intense bursts caused an artificial intelligence tool to flag the activity as automated bot traffic. Stone said, “This activity caused our automated protections to incorrectly take the No Kings Instagram account offline. An automated re-review of the removal action an hour later recognized that shouldn’t have happened and restored the account. It unfortunately took additional time for us to straighten out the situation with admin access to the IG account. We want to reiterate our sincere apology for the error.”
Organizers for the No Kings movement pushed back on this claim
They stated that members posted only a handful of times and livestreamed to thousands of people. The incident drew attention from political figures. Senator Bernie Sanders expressed concerns on X on Sunday, stating that “billionaire ownership of the media” had resulted in the suspension.
Senator Chris Murphy also took to social media to call for an investigation. Murphy said, “How were they not ready for the biggest day of anti-Trump protest of the campaign? 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.”
Despite the technical issues on Instagram, hundreds of planned events continued across the country. In Washington at the Lincoln Memorial, people danced and held signs reading VOTE EARLY and HANDS OFF MY VOTE, the same messaging Mark Ruffalo talked about from a recent No Kings rally stage.
Protesters in downtown Los Angeles carried umbrellas to stay out of the heat as a band performed on a rolling stage. Crowds there cheered for calls to abolish ICE and pass a billionaire tax in California. During a demonstration in Atlanta, city councilman Michael Julian Bond told the crowd, “The constitution gives you one power, right? That is the power to vote. Are you gonna use that power?”
The No Kings movement started last summer. The group formed to address concerns regarding immigration enforcement, federal layoffs and foreign wars. The demonstrations often focus on anti-Trump sentiments. This year, the movement shifted its focus to voting ahead of the midterm elections. Organizers cited the supreme court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act and fears about President Donald Trump calling election results into question as primary reasons for their efforts. Leah Greenberg, a co-executive director of Indivisible, previously stated that organizers planned to recruit volunteers at these events to mobilize in case of election sabotage.
Published: Oct 19, 2026 07:15 pm