What happened to Berner's Instagram? Rapper lashes out at Adam Mosseri and Meta for not giving him "a fair shot at reaching people"

Rapper Berner took to Instagram on Thursday, May 16, to express his dissatisfaction with the platform and its CEO, Adam Mosseri, claiming that his account was restricted temporarily for reposting a freestyle video by Conway the Machine on his story.

In his Instagram post, Berner accused the social media app and Mosseri of not giving him "a fair shot at reaching people." The rapper also shared a screenshot displaying Instagram's message to him for removing one of his stories. He wrote:

"@instagram @mosseri I accept that my page is always going to be attacked and I’ll never have a fair shot at reaching people on this platform, but this is getting laughable and embarrassing."

The rapper claimed that Instagram removed one of his stories where he reposted a video of Conway the Machine freestyling. Currently, the story is unavailable on his profile as the platform removed it, stating it goes against their "community guidelines."

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Berner shared screenshots of Instagram's official message for removing his story

In the aforementioned post, Berner attached two screenshots of Instagram's official message to him after removing one of his stories. According to the attached screencap, Instagram removed his story as it did not comply with their "Community Guidelines."

Additionally, the rapper appeared to have appealed against the app's decision, but the platform reiterated that his repost was against their community guidelines on "violence and incitement." He attached the message in response to his appeal in his second screenshot.

Berner also alleged that the platform "shadow banned" him for reposting the video of Conway the Machine freestyling. He also mentioned that the app supposedly temporarily restricted his account, as he was unable to go live and his content could not be shared by other users on the platform. He stated in his post:

"The other day I reposted a video of @whoisconway free styling on @hot97. How is this violating anything at all? why did it fully shadow ban me? take away the ability to go live and make my content not able to be shared ?"

It is worth noting that the term "shadow ban" is not part of Instagram's official guidelines. As per Elfsight, shadow ban refers to when "a platform's algorithms restrict the visibility of an account."

In his post, Berner also tagged Instagram's parent company, Meta, and urged them to start working against "unfair attacks" on people, claiming it "hurts his business." He added:

"@meta really needs to start looking into the unfair attacks on people of status and understand how bad this truly hurts all my business. I’m well aware of the rules and follow them, but the fact this was reviewed and considered a violation is a complete joke and super disappointing."

According to Instagram's official community guidelines on their website, they do not allow the inciting of "violence or attack on anyone." The guideline states:

"It's never OK to encourage violence or attack anyone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, s*x, gender, gender identity, s*xual orientation, religious affiliation, disabilities, or diseases."

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Berner launched a cannabis-promoting app called Social Club in 2019

According to the LA Times, in 2019, Berner created his own version of a photo-sharing app called Social Club to promote and share images of weed and cannabis.

The app was reportedly a censor-free alternative to Instagram, which provided users with a platform to share any kind of media they wanted. It was specifically designed for marijuana-related content, as such content is prohibited on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

However, the situation quickly spiraled out of hand when Social Club became a hub of cyber harassment, racism, child p*rnography, and the promotion of illicit drugs. The Apple Store promptly removed the app, although it was available on the Google Play Store for a longer time.

Alongside the rapper, Joshua Otten, the co-founder of the cannabis lifestyle brand PRØHBTD, was also one of the founding members of the app. The founders also expressed their interest in launching Social Club TV, a cannabis network that would feature various shows about weed and cannabis, in an August 2019 press release.