Instagram's Bizarre Vendetta Against Food Festival's Pictures

IT'S one of the most popular uses for Instagram - posting pretty photos of food. But was this Instagram feed just too mouth-watering for the social network?

The kind of image posted by on the @shfoodwine Instagram feed:

Instagram appears to have a bizarre vendetta against the country NSW Southern Highlands Food & Wine Festival, twice deleting its popular food-focused account without explanation.

Upset organisers had spent more than six months building an 1000-strong following on the photo app by uploading pictures of gourmet meals and fresh produce.

But last month the social network deleted their account for "terms of service violations". When confused organisers re-registered the account, Instagram deleted it again.

"I couldn't believe it. I thought there must have been something wrong. And when we re-registered - to have that deleted as well (is ridiculous)," winemaker Jeff Aston, from Bowral NSW, told news.com.au.

Images posted on the account included pictures of meals, local markets, food and wine producers and farm animals such as cattle.

"This must be one of the photos Instagram finds offensive," Mr Aston said. 

Comments posted to Instagram demanding an explanation were also deleted, Mr Aston said. "They just deleted those comments as well".

This is not the first time the social network have deleted the accounts of Australian businesses without warning.

In June, Instagram disabled the account of diet tea business SkinnyMeTea, a social media-driven business with more than 200,000 followers. Its owners were not given an explanation at the time.

The business later told their account had been deactivated because of a hacker attack.

A spokeswoman said the event had a detrimental impact on their business.

Instagram has not responded to requests for an explanation from Mr Aston or news.com.au. As for the Southern Highlands Food and Wine Festival, it will be held on September 21 - 22.

Has something like this happened to you? Contact this reporter: Daniel.Piotrowski@news.com.au

The account, before deletion, and after, the explanation @shfoodwine received.

It's quite curious if you ask me. I'm going to have to re-read Instagram's Terms & Conditions and their Privacy Policy because even I don't get why. And no explanation either? Fishy... Very fishy...

Thanks to Daniel Piotrowski of NEWS.COM.AU for this story.

Your VB Kid
Psypher