Instagram Is Reportedly Down For Android Users Following Concerns Over Password Security

Instagram Is Reportedly Down For Android Users Following Concerns Over Password Security

Dozens of Android users reported that the Instagram app wasn’t working for them as of Saturday morning, with some posting about problems on mobile on Twitter late Friday. Instagram now says the issue is fixed.

“Some users temporarily had trouble using Instagram on Android earlier,” the company said in a statement by email to Gizmodo on Saturday. “This was caused by a bug that we quickly fixed.”

At least one user reported that logging on led to a blank white screen. As writer Andrew LaSane pointed out on Twitter, the company didn’t list any known issues on its website in spite of the fact that users had been reporting the bug on social media for more than 12 hours. 

Some Twitter users said that heading to Settings in the app, forcing a stop, and clearing the cache and data seemed to fix the issue. The company also advised users still experiencing issues to clear their cache or reinstall the app altogether.

The apparent Android glitch isn’t the only problem Instagram users have dealt with this week. The Information reported Friday that the social media company reached out to its some users earlier this week about a security flaw that exposed their passwords. Instagram reportedly told its users on Thursday that the platform’s “Download Your Data” tool put their passwords at risk by including them in the URLs of their browsers.

A company spokesperson said the issue affected “a very small number of people,” according to the Information, but the company still advised some users to clear their browser history and update their password.

A spokesperson for the company told Gizmodo by email on Saturday that it has fixed the error and deleted any passwords that may have been logged by its internal systems.

“Temporarily, if someone submitted their login information to use the Instagram ‘Download Your Data’ tool, they were able to see their password information in the URL of the page,” the company said in a statement. “This information was not exposed to anyone else, and we have made changes so this no longer happens.”


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