El Paso’s most popular Instagram account, which had been deleted by the social media platform Monday, was restored Wednesday.
The account, @therealfitfamelpaso, was taken down by Instagram on Monday for allegedly violating its community standards. Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and other social media brands, didn’t provide a detailed explanation to the account owners and hasn’t responded to requests for comment from El Paso Matters.
“We are extremely grateful for those that helped to get our account back and for those that have continued to support the platform,” one of the co-owners of the FitFam account, who asked not to be identified to protect his privacy, told El Paso Matters. “We did manage to see a lot of the commentary and concerns about the page in the aftermath of the deletion. The page is growing and maturing and will continue to do so. We are listening to the concerns and will keep shaping the page into a better version of itself.”
Instagram’s takedown notice to FitFam said the decision to delete the account couldn’t be reviewed. But a notice sent Wednesday said the decision was reviewed, and found that FitFam hadn’t violated community standards.
After the deletion, FitFam posted to what it called a backup account on Instagram. That account is no longer available.
The FitFam Instagram account, which has more than 600,000 followers in its restored version, quickly resumed posting its signature content, including audience-submitted video of flooding from Wednesday’s storms and a traffic jam on Interstate 10.
As traditional media has eroded in El Paso and around the country, social media has become an increasingly prominent source of local news, although not produced by traditional journalists. FitFam, whose current Instagram account was created in 2019, has by far the largest social media following in El Paso.
The site is controversial at times, with some users criticizing FitFam for focusing on negative information about El Paso.
The post FitFam’s Instagram got canceled Monday. It’s back two days later appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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