How To Get Your Cannabis Instagram Account Back If Disabled

Social media is an important tool for marketers in any space. It allows brands to create connections and communicate with current and potential consumers anytime, anywhere. With COVID-era lockdowns, consumers are staying inside and scrolling through social platforms more than ever, increasing the importance of digital advertising and native content creation. The cannabis industry is no exception – with many brands, retailers, producers, and accessory purveyors utilizing platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Snapchat.

What is Facebook’s Policy on Cannabis?

Facebook and Instagram are based in California, where cannabis is legal for recreational use. However, California is obviously in the United States – where the plant is still federally prohibited. Furthermore, Facebook conducts business worldwide in a variety of countries and needs to take international law into account. For all of these reasons and more, cannabis content is technically restricted on both Facebook and Instagram, which they also own.

Facebook/Instagram’s official content policies around “drugs and drug-related products” are:

Ads must not promote the sale or use of illegal, prescription or recreational drugs (Ex. drug-related paraphernalia, such as bongs, rolling papers and vaporiser devices)
Avoid using images of smoking-related accessories (such as bongs and rolling papers)
Avoid using images that imply the use of a recreational drug
Avoid using images of either recreational or medical marijuana

Facebook’s examples of images not to use.

As you can see, cannabis is the only drug mentioned specifically by name within these regulations. Both images of the plant and cannabis-related accessories are targeted and removed. Although Facebook acknowledges that cannabis can be both “recreational” and “medical”, implying that the substance is regulated and has medicinal value, their official website continues to communicate a zero-tolerance policy on “marijuana”. This poses a large problem for cannabis producers, brands, retailers, accessory producers, and marketing agencies looking to connect with consumers.

Cannabis Content and Account Deletion

Because of these strict policies, cannabis-related content and accounts are subject to deletion at any moment. Even accounts that don’t post outwardly 420-friendly content (no images of smoking or buds) can be deleted if Instagram detects that you’re connected to a cannabis-related business.

Although Instagram is the main source of concern, Facebook’s platform is also removing weed-related content and accounts. Facebook’s policy states: “Some of these items are not regulated everywhere; however, because of the borderless nature of our community, we try to enforce our policies as consistently as possible. We define pharmaceutical drugs as drugs used to treat medical conditions that aren’t widely available without a prescription. “We prohibit” Buying or selling tobacco, marijuana or medical drugs”. Below is what it will look like if you have a post removed by Facebook for cannabis-related content.

Photos of cannabis or people using cannabis can be deleted for going against the Community Guidelines. The image below is what it looks like when one of your photos is deleted from Instagram. When your content is deleted, the platform warns you that your account may also get deleted if you continue to not follow the guidelines.

Instagram will frequently prioritize removing content that is reported – which means that “haters” and unethical competitors can, unfortunately, conspire to potentially have your page taken down. Up until recently, that was the main cause of content and account removal. However, in late 2020, Instagram and Facebook made an observable change to their AI restricted content detection, as cannabis accounts and photos were targeted to the extreme. If you rack up enough posts that violate IG’s community guidelines, your account will likely be disabled.

How to get your Cannabis Instagram Account Back

Cannabis Instagram Account Disabled-Notice

So, your cannabis-related Instagram account got deleted – how do you get it back? If you’re lucky enough to know someone that works at Facebook/Instagram or you work with an agency that has a connection, you can simply reach out and have your account reinstated. If you’re like 99% of people and that isn’t the case – don’t panic, here’s a five-step guide to get your cannabis Instagram account back.

1. Once your account is disabled, it will prompt you to request a review. Follow these steps and request a review through the app.

2. There are five external links you can follow to request a review. Fill out all five of these forms and provide all requested information. The more you fill out the better.

Here are the five links to follow to get your accounts back:

3. After submitting these forms, you should receive an email back from Instagram support within a few days. This email will ask you to confirm that you own the account you are trying to reinstate. To prove this, you will need to reply to this email with an image of you holding a piece of paper that includes a code provided in the email, your full name, the username of the account, includes both the picture and your face and arm holding the paper. Send this back attached as a .jpeg file.

4. One of the forms will ask you for any business documentation to prove that you are the owner of the account/that the business is legitimate. If you are a retailer, provide an image of your cannabis retail license. If you are a producer, provide any documentation proving your Health Canada license. If you have a trademark for your brand’s name, provide that. Any and all documents will assist your case.

5. Wait to hear back. Continue filling these forms out on a daily basis and replying to Support’s email communications.

In times where the importance of creating digital content to attract new customers is increased due to the restrictions on providing an in-store experience, it’s really unfortunate that Facebook has decided to crack down on these legal Canadian businesses. We hope that you found this guide useful and best of luck with getting your account back!

To ensure your cannabis Instagram account is Cannabis Act compliant, you can also set an age-limit using this guide.

Last Updated on March 4, 2023 by ADCANN