We’re the champs of getting our social accounts shut down

For the second time in under a year, your friendly neighbourhood hockey blog is going up against a giant social media company to try and get one of our accounts back. Last time, Twitter shut us down without so much as a hint as to why and that exact same thing happened again just this past week. Only this time, we’re talking about Instagram. Happy day. *sigh*

A week ago, your boy was sitting on a beach in Mexico with a drink in my hand and the sun on my face, enjoying a rare vacation as I flew down to Cancun to celebrate a buddy’s wedding and do a little partying at the same time. Whilst getting my drink on, lime daiquiris are the perfect choice for an extended drinking session btw, Nation Dan sent me a message that we had a problem with our Instagram account and that we’d been suspended for “impersonation.” Filled with tequila-induced confidence and gusto, I jumped on my laptop with the idea that this whole thing was a simple misunderstanding and that filling out the appeal form offered to us would be all that was needed to reclaim our space but boy was I wrong. Impersonation? Of who? The account clearly stated that we’re Oilersnation.com so I guess we were just impersonating ourselves? Pfft. This was going to be easy.

Spoiler: It was not that easy.

After a week of filling out appeal forms and emailing brand-related employees at Instagram without so much as a form letter coming back our way, here we are after seven days without being a lick closer to having our account back. Considering the business we’re in, this is obviously not ideal. It sucks because Instagram is a tool we use to not only keep our community engaged and entertained but it also acts as a significant part of our business plan. Outside posting memes, fanboying over Connor, and highlights we post on a daily basis, we also use Instagram as a means to promote our events, our content, NationGear, charitable initiatives, community events, and everything in between so to lose 75,000 followers is a kick to the shin that none of us wanted or needed. Now, I’m not writing this as some kind of sob story, these kinds of speed bumps come with the territory, but rather to vent a little bit and hopefully ask you guys for some assistance.

If you’re feeling inclined to help, what we’re looking to do is have everyone with an Instagram/Twitter account to be tagging @Instagram with #FreeOfficialOilersnation to see if we can’t garner enough attention to have someone actually pay attention to our requests. Seeing as we’re not getting anywhere with the proper channels provided to us, it’s time to be the squeaky wheel until we get the grease… I mean, that’s the theory anyway. At this point, we’re not exactly hopeful that we’ll get our account back, but we’ve also seen the ability this community has for getting a job done so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that your help will be the boost we need. In the meantime, you can check us out on our new Instagram account at @Nation_ON (Nation + double underscore + ON). Thanks, Nation!