First @velvetcoke was ​“disabled” by Instagram. Before being tossed headlong into the digital ether, the account’s owner, Naomi, shared images of major key celebs who shaped the ​’70s, ​’80s and ​‘90s, like Axl Rose and Alicia Silverstone. She posted upwards of five times a day to 940,000 odd followers, which included Kendall Jenner and Shawn Mendes. Each post was accompanied by a short caption with a fun fact or description for context. For The Face, I run a series on my account @treytylor in partnership with @velvetcoke called ​“Hollyweird,” detailing forgotten or lesser-known stories about everyone from Kate Moss to Kurt Cobain. After her seventh copyright notice, @velvetcoke’s account was greyed out. ​“User not found,” Instagram declared.

Less than a month later, @90sanxiety was taken down. Its owner James shared pre-millennium images of Princess Diana in biker shorts, the cast of Friends and a coquettish Winona Ryder to 880,000 followers on what author Anna Wiener accurately describes in her book Uncanny Valley as a platform that helps “[people] feel close to celebrities and other strangers they’d loathe in real life”. Instagram was made for this: sharing photos or nostalgic moments, of stuff we can all double-tap and reminisce upon. Or so we thought.

Within the span of a single month, two of Instagram’s nostalgia accounts, arguably with the largest followings, have been wiped clean off the platform. Well, @90sanxiety was reinstated after a couple of erroneous reports, but none of the original posts remain. James deleted hundreds of images, afraid old content was potential ammo. The account has been effectively disarmed; he is deciding how best to proceed. Naomi has been unable to recoup her account since deletion day, 15th January. ​“I won’t forget that date,” she tells me. ​“There were so many emotions when my account first got disabled. A huge shock, then sadness and crying, numbness and lately anger. Even though I usually try to present myself as positive and fun, I was going through tough times personally as well. I was dealing with health issues both mental and physical, certain people were leaving my life, which was a huge pain and I’m starting college this year so this whole situation made me feel really stressed and sad.” She has been fruitlessly trying to dispute the copyright infringement reports via Instagram’s byzantine robo-forms.