Connector · mandatory platform

Instagram

Requires AccessAccess not in place

Instagram is the most restrictive of the four. Everything programmatic requires a Business or Creator account; consumer APIs were sunset on 4 December 2024. An authorised account owner can monitor their own account deeply. Hashtag search is a thin, filtered slice — 30 unique hashtags per rolling 7 days, a 24-hour recent window, no usernames returned. Comments on other accounts' media cannot be read at all.

Practical ceiling

What this connector can reach today

Reachable

Deeply monitor an authorised Business or Creator account: profile, media, Reels, Stories, insights.
List, reply to, hide and delete comments on the operator's OWN media.
Read mentions in near real time and poll tags.
Use Business Discovery for profile and media of other public professional accounts.

Not reachable

Read comments on other accounts' media — a hard API restriction.
Receive Reels comment webhooks — Meta's documentation states Reels are not supported.
Reliably monitor hashtags: the cap is 30 unique hashtags per rolling 7 days, the recent window is 24 hours, and no usernames are returned.
Use any consumer/personal-account API — Basic Display was sunset on 4 December 2024.
Submit programmatic removal — none exists.

Deep monitoring of consenting or operator-controlled professional accounts; a weak hashtag sampler; and bulk public content only via a research partnership (L3).

Exact dependency preventing live operation

Blocked by: the Instagram API reaches only Business/Creator accounts that authorised the app, and comments on other accounts' media are not exposed at all. Bulk public Instagram content requires a qualified research institution as lead applicant for Meta Content Library — read-only cleanroom, no raw-data export, no action on content.

Capability register

12 registered capabilities

Own-account profile, media, Reels and StoriesLivecollection
Required scope
instagram_business_basic (or instagram_basic + pages_show_list)
Collection latency
Near real-time (webhooks) / seconds (polling)
Quota
Account-level rate limits
Known coverage gap
Professional accounts only.
Blocking dependency
Requires a Business/Creator account plus Meta App Review.
Comments on own media (list, reply, hide, delete)Liveenforcement
Required scope
instagram_business_manage_comments
Collection latency
Near real-time
Quota
Account-level rate limits
Known coverage gap
Own media only.
Blocking dependency
Requires Meta App Review.
Mentions, tags and insightsLivecollection
Required scope
instagram_business_manage_insights
Collection latency
Mentions near real-time; tags by polling
Quota
Account-level rate limits
Known coverage gap
Tags have no webhook — polling only.
Blocking dependency
Requires Meta App Review.
Business Discovery of other public professional accountsLimitedcollection
Required scope
instagram_basic + an authorised own professional account
Collection latency
Seconds
Quota
Account-level rate limits
Known coverage gap
Profile and media only — comments are not returned.
Blocking dependency
Requires an authorised own professional account.
Hashtag searchLimitedcollection
Required scope
instagram_basic + Instagram Public Content Access
Collection latency
Recent window is 24 hours
Quota
MAX 30 unique hashtags per rolling 7 days
Known coverage gap
A sampler, not a feed: no usernames returned, ads excluded, and only media from Business/Creator accounts that authorised the app.
Blocking dependency
Instagram Public Content Access feature approval.
Comments on OTHER accounts' mediaUnsupportedcollection
Required scope
None — no official scope exists.
Collection latency
Not applicable.
Quota
Not published.
Known coverage gap
Hard coverage gap — the API restricts comment access to media you own.
Blocking dependency
No official capability exists.
Reels comment webhooksUnsupportedcollection
Required scope
None — no official scope exists.
Collection latency
Not applicable.
Quota
Not published.
Known coverage gap
Meta's own documentation states Reels are not supported. Own-Reels comments remain readable on demand, but no real-time webhook fires.
Blocking dependency
Platform limitation.
Personal / consumer-account APIsUnsupportedcollection
Required scope
None — no official scope exists.
Collection latency
Not applicable.
Quota
Not published.
Known coverage gap
Basic Display API was sunset on 4 December 2024.
Blocking dependency
No official capability remains.
Bulk public content via Meta Content LibraryRequires Accessaccess
Required scope
Content Library API (institutional access)
Collection latency
Near real-time for the research tool
Quota
Set by Meta per approved institution
Known coverage gap
Read-only cleanroom; no raw-data export.
Blocking dependency
Requires a qualified academic or non-academic research institution as lead applicant. Meta's eligibility rule is organisational, not geographic, and Pakistan is not on Meta's sanctions-exclusion list — a Pakistani not-for-profit research institution or not-for-profit university can in principle qualify. Read-only cleanroom; no raw-data export; no action on content.
Government legal-process channel (account-scoped)Limitedaccess
Required scope
Meta Law Enforcement Online Request System (LEORS)
Collection latency
Days to weeks (reactive)
Quota
Case-by-case on valid legal process
Known coverage gap
Account-scoped and reactive — not a content feed.
Blocking dependency
Requires valid legal process from an authorised agency.
In-country restriction (PTA)Liveenforcement
Required scope
PTA under PECA s.37(1) + 2021 Rules
Collection latency
Days
Quota
Not published.
Known coverage gap
Not removal; not hermetic.
Blocking dependency
None — reachable.
Programmatic content removalUnsupportedenforcement
Required scope
None — no official scope exists.
Collection latency
Not applicable.
Quota
Not published.
Known coverage gap
The only programmatic moderation is hide/delete of comments on your OWN media.
Blocking dependency
Manual only: in-product reporting and the IP Reporting Center.

Every non-live row names the dependency that blocks it. Gaps are listed rather than hidden.

Content-type matrix

Supported content types

PostRequires Access
Own professional-account media is live; public content only via the Content Library cleanroom.
Dependency: Meta Content Library institutional access (L3): requires a qualified academic or non-profit research institution as lead applicant; read-only cleanroom with no raw-data export.
CaptionRequires Access
Captions on own media are live; captions on public media only via the cleanroom.
Dependency: Meta Content Library institutional access (L3): requires a qualified academic or non-profit research institution as lead applicant; read-only cleanroom with no raw-data export.
ReelLimited
Own Reels are readable on demand, but Meta fires no Reels comment webhook; public Reels are only reachable via L3.
Dependency: No Reels comment webhook (platform limitation).
CommentLimited
Hide/delete is live for comments on your OWN media; comments on other accounts' media cannot be read at all.
Dependency: Comment access is restricted to media you own.
HashtagLimited
30 unique hashtags per rolling 7 days, a 24-hour recent window, and no usernames returned.
Dependency: Requires Instagram Public Content Access feature approval.
Account profileLive
Authorised Business/Creator accounts: profile, media, Reels and Stories.
Dependency: Requires Meta App Review and a Business/Creator account.

One row per mandatory content type, stating which lawful route (if any) reaches it. A live status names a content type that is reachable today — it is not a measure of how much of the platform is visible.

End-to-end walk

Acceptance walk for this platform

01
Ingestion or URL submission
02
Multimodal analysis
03
Evidence (PECA s.38 package)
04
Case opened
05
Reviewer approval at the human gate
06
Supported enforcement request
07
Outcome verification
08
Recorded as rejected, failed or inconclusive

Sandbox operation is labelled as such throughout. It does not count as completed live platform coverage.

Where access is unavailable the walk runs in a sandbox with synthetic data. That is not completed live platform coverage.

In-country restriction — a separate track

Restricts access INSIDE PAKISTAN. This is NOT removal: it does not delete content, does not touch the platform's servers, and does not affect anyone outside Pakistan. It is not hermetic — VPNs and encrypted DNS evade network-layer blocking. It is a power of PTA under PECA 2016 s.37(1) and the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules 2021 — NOT a power of this application. This application prepares and tracks a request; it never executes a block.

Regulatory content is quoted for operational reference only and is not legal advice.