Business

The Sad And Scary Truth About Instagram, Your Online Business Is Not Safe!

Published

6 years ago

August 14, 2020

Jackson O’Doherty, a prominent social media figure and a comedian with millions of fans worldwide, recently published a YouTube video revealing how Instagram removed his account. His account, with over four million people, was removed from their platform without any previous warning. In a half an hour long video, the Australian star dealt blow after blow of solid proof against the hypocrisy of the social media giant.

“First of all, don’t expect this to be an overly emotional rant about a poor Instagram influencer playing a victim. I am not being irrational, and I know that the world is crazy right now, with COVID 19 being just one of the difficulties. It’s not about the number of followers on my account. It is about the platform itself. I have been very blessed in my life, and even though I have just lost four million followers and money from sponsored deals, the world is not ending. I want to address something far more important than my loss. The reality that for millions of creators, Instagram is no longer a safe platform to invest their money or their time in,” claimed O’Doherty. It’s a pretty bold claim, however, he backed it up with proof. Looking at the evidence, one cannot look at them but wonder how Instagram is still considered a safe space for all audiences.

After the evidence he presented, Instagram is starting to look more like a whimsical, non-transparent organization full of favoritism and inconsistency. It is beginning to look more similar to a high school clique than a professional business company.

If Instagram was a bank

Let’s just say that we are lucky that Instagram is not a bank. Judging by their behavior, if they were a bank, they would have the right to revoke your mortgage, kick you out of your house and still take your money and never call you back again.

Many people who are not that familiar with social media might find this analogy a bit exaggerated, but as O’Doherty explained, “It is not just an Instagram account. It is a platform for a project that accepted your time and investment and made money through your effort. Then, they just destroyed something that supports your family without any warning.”

Instagram and Facebook act as a corporation. They are earning an unprecedented amount of money out of ordinary people like Jackson, yet they provide almost no explanation when they take away someone’s livelihood. When they ask for your money to promote ads, they pretend to be a professional company, yet when you ask them about your funds, they simply disappear.

Double standards

The comedian’s claims were not some vague complaints of a wronged man, nor was this a heated rant. O’Doherty took out his phone and calmly started telling a story. A story that needs to be told before anyone else gets used by this platform to earn money from their content – just to be spat out when they no longer appeal to a random employee.

“So, here’s what happened. An Instagram employee named Zack holds a personal grudge against me. He constantly punishes me for the things I do, which are the same things that the very people he is following are doing daily. I’m not a saint, but I am not as half as bad as the very people he is following. He doesn’t do anything about it, and they get away with it, but my account gets removed in the end,” states the star.

A but, a bus, and a broken integrity

“The double standards I’m talking about here have happened to many creators, many of which are my friends. I’m not being emotional, I’m being rational. I have invested my money and time for six years, building up my following just to get removed for something not even specified. This isn’t just about me. It’s about privilege and hypocrisy. Naked girls are favored. People get away with posting violence and gore. Kim Kardashian can probably get away with killing a person, live on Instagram, and it would still show up in the Explore feed. But, if I and my girlfriend kiss on a video, just a peck on the lips – it gets removed,” said Jackson, showing screenshots of posts where a famous woman is naked from the waist down, another popular girl is flaunting the outlines of her vagina in a transparent bikini, and a bunch of men who are sporting their beach bodies with the focus on their naked behinds.

This turned out to be just a warm-up. Instagram not only allowed for these photos to stay on the platform, but almost all of them had thousands of likes, comments, and a huge reach.

Gore and violence were also rampant. A video of a woman being run over by a bus and a photo of a man who lost half of his face in a bear attack are still visible to everyone, including children on the platform. Jackson showed us footage of a man being beaten to death, that is still on Instagram while asking a logical question – posting a man’s death is allowed, but comedy isn’t?

When business is allowed to become personal

O’Doherty emphasized that his problem was not just a random act by an unknown algorithm, but that his issue had a first name and last name. And apparently – a plan.

“The man I previously mentioned, named Zack, deliberately targeted my accounts. On one occasion, he removed one of my accounts, claiming that I breached community standards. I ended up explaining to him the very guidelines that he was supposed to explain to me. He ended up returning my account after I proved him wrong,” states the comedian. However, it turns out that the Instagram employee hasn’t given up on making Jackson’s life worse. He was repeatedly flagged for the smallest of things until his account was removed – without a word of notice by, you guessed it – by Zack.

A message for Instagram

“The most valuable currency that no one can take back is time. The most important part of any company is integrity. If Instagram can’t guarantee that they can respect that, they are not a professional company. I would like for people on Facebook and Instagram to see this because I think it’s essential for all current and future creators. I would love to have my account back as it was more than just a profile. It was a way for me to support my family, and a tool to make this world a better place.

I was donating money regularly to different causes, such as Go Fund Me pages, Australian bushfires relief, Black lives matter project, etc. I was also working on a mental health app that would help people who are going through a hard time. I used to openly raise awareness about my mental problems and hoped that I could use my example to help people who are struggling. Now, thanks to Instagram, I can no longer do that.

If a company wants you to invest your time and money on their platform, you should feel safe doing so. Right? I’m not asking for better treatment; I’m asking to be treated the same. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have opened up so many opportunities for people all around the world. It is time to own up to what that means for every single one of them,” stated Jackson.

Whether you like his comedy or the concept of social media, one thing is certain. When it comes to money, there must be consistency, transparency, and a guarantee that a system that takes billions from people and uses them to make a profit, needs to have a system that ensures that its users and their investments are safe. Otherwise – it’s a scam with a fancy filter.

Business

Ipsos Helps Brands Understand How They Get Customer Experience Wrong & Why It’s Costing Them Millions

Published

4 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Matthew Wiles

For brands looking to succeed in the modern business ecosystem, the customer experience (CX) is not something companies can afford to ignore. CX is a direct driver of revenue, loyalty, and growth for organizations.

Ipsos, one of the world’s leading market research firms, helps brands understand that failing to focus on the customer experience can lead to lost sales, which in turn can translate to not only millions in lost revenue but also lost trust and credibility in the market.

How brands still get CX wrong

“The customer decision and desire to do business with brands directly affect the bottom line,” says Brad Christian, Chief Commercial Officer at Ipsos – Experience Practice.

Customer experience may sound like a simple concept, but many brands still get it wrong. CX goes beyond surveys and feedback. Leaders who fail to connect feedback in a meaningful way to goals such as retention, repeat visits or purchases, advocacy, and operational performance fail to deliver on their service promises. The emotional and functional disconnect can spell trouble for brands. The most polished advertising campaigns cannot make up for a frustrating customer interaction or a promise that a business cannot fulfill.

According to Ipsos’s internal research, many customers today see service as too automated and impersonal. More than half report that their experience is worse than promised.

These findings don’t just result in disappointed buyers. They result in lost customers, negative feedback, and a long-term impact on the business as a whole.

“Brands have to manage the entire customer experience across each and every touchpoint,” explains Christian.

Poor CX can be expensive

Executives can often underestimate how expensive a history of poor CX can be. Global losses can reach into the billions while leaders wonder what went wrong. In an age of rapid social media communication, a single negative interaction can spell disaster for a company, leading to reduced customer spending or the entire loss of its most loyal customers.

Those losses are not just reflected in lost revenue, however. Customer acquisition and marketing dollars can also be lost as companies continue to spend money trying to retain their customer base, often skipping right over the experience part of retention.

Poor customer experience can be a deep operating problem that creates a domino effect, decimating businesses from the inside out. These poor experiences can impact not only present and future customer acquisition but also business leaders and employees.

CX matters more in today’s business landscape

The customer experience has always mattered, but it may matter more to brands trying to make it in a modern, ultra-competitive, digitally-driven business landscape. Good experiences encourage repeat purchases, boost loyalty, and increase the likelihood that customers will go online and recommend a brand to others.

“Customer experience isn’t an isolated function,” says Christian. “It’s ‌part of a larger system that ensures that brands measure and manage customer experience data and then act on that data to drive action where customer experience gaps exist.”

Brands also have to seek to understand today’s customers, who expect experiences that are seamless, authentic, and relevant. As more and more companies hop on the automation train, they will want to reassure their customers that the human element that many people consider important still exists.

At Ipsos, six drivers of strong customer relationships form the bedrock of the company’s CX platform, something that they refer to as the “Forces of CX”: certainty, fair treatment, control, status, belonging, and enjoyment.

Customers want to feel that if they have an issue with a brand, it will be handled and that their concerns will be understood. They don’t want the customer experience to feel like a battleground; they want it to feel fair and human.

“Customer experience isn’t just a nicer experience,” says Christian. “It ties directly to specific financial outcomes, whether that be increased sales, greater market share, or stronger brand loyalty.”

How Ipsos helps businesses deliver customer experiences that matter

Ipsos turns customer feedback into reliable, actionable, decision-ready information. The company goes beyond simple satisfaction metrics and implements voice-of-the-customer programs, journey analytics, relationship feedback, and quality research.

“Brands don’t just need data,” Christian says. “They need measurements as to how they are delivering on their brand promise and predictive modeling to tie financial performance measures to those measures to help them determine where to invest to maximize the customer experience and understand what financial impact those investments might deliver for the business.”

Ipsos measures the interactions that matter ‌most and shows brands how each interaction can affect retention, share of spend, and efficiency. For brands that are trying to reduce the guesswork behind CX, Ipsos helps them move beyond cosmetic fixes to achieve real, meaningful change.

Customer expectations can shift on a dime, influenced by society, social media, and even changing trends. Ipsos helps brands meet those rapidly changing customer expectations with hard evidence and comprehensive metrics.

Today’s brands need to understand how to get the customer experience right. Ipsos has the insights needed to drive home the deep importance of CX in today’s marketplace.