Instagram launches new tool to recover hacked accounts

Popular social media company, Instagram, has announced a much-needed tool for hacked users who've lost access to their accounts and have no option to recover them.

The Instagram.com/hacked tool will report and resolve account access problems, even if users have forgotten their passwords or lost two-factor authentication information.

The account support page promises to recover hacked accounts, report impersonations, or recover forgotten passwords.

Though Instagram account hacking has been quite common, options to recover hacked accounts have remained limited for users. 

A 2018 Motherboard report provided insight into how some users paid ransom to hackers who've taken their accounts hostage. While another report from 2019 detailed how some users were compelled to pay other hackers to re-hack and recover their accounts.

Instagram had announced earlier this year that it was looking for ways users could recover their accounts, and has now launched a tool that will help to do so with at least two friends verifying their identity. The company has also said that it's trying to determine other ways to completely put a stop to hacking altogether.

Instagram parent, Meta, has ambitiously been creating a more robust customer service division to help users who encounter account and moderation issues.