Instagram users are panicking after discovering a serious privacy glitch that lets people outside their “Close Friends” list see and even reply to private Notes meant only for select followers.
Meta’s Instagram users have been ringing the alarm on Reddit since Wednesday, claiming that an unknown bug on the social media platform allowed people outside the closed friend circle to see and respond to notes dedicated to the closed circle.
Instagram Notes are short, temporary posts that disappear after 24 hours. They appear above the profile photo on the Instagram application.
The platform’s Close Friends feature lets users handpick a private circle to exclusively share Stories, Reels, or Notes, while hiding it from the rest of their followers.
Users are not notified when they’re added or removed from someone’s “Close Friend” list. However, they can spot a green circle around a profile photo, signaling that shared content is meant for the inner circle.
“It was extremely incriminating”
Fully trusting the platform, the users were caught off guard when the alleged privacy bug occurred. “It could’ve destroyed my life if I didn’t react sooner, tbh,” wrote one Redditor.
“Someone not on my close friends list just replied to my close friends only note,” one user wrote.
“They shouldn't have been able to see it and reply to it. I'm freaked out cause the entire reason I use close friends on notes is so I wouldn't get replies from that exact person.”
Others described similar horror stories, with one user sharing:
“I’m not trying to be dramatic, but this happened to me earlier today, and it was EXTREMELY incriminating. I made a close friends-only note about a specific person who is not on it. And THEY REPLIED TO IT.”
The glitch seems to have shaken trust in Instagram’s “Close Friends” feature, with users saying they’re now afraid their supposedly private content could resurface in front of the wrong eyes.
“I’m scared that they’ll see my close friends story too,” one user added.
Cybernews has reached out to Instagram for a comment, but a response is yet to be received.
This isn’t the first time the social media platform has exposed its users. This summer, when Instagram released a new feature dubbed Maps, multiple users complained about their location being shared with everyone without their consent.
The situation caused a huge backlash and anger among platform users, who felt endangered by such a privacy breach.
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