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Janet Jackson sort of apologizes for Instagram deletions

Janet Jackson sort of apologizes for Instagram deletions

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Says her team is just 'passionate' about intellectual property

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Janet Jackson's fans have been surprised and upset in recent weeks to find videos they took of the singer's ongoing tour removed from Instagram. According to a report from the New York Post, one concert-goer even had their entire account deleted. "Without warning," said the fan. "Every. Single. Photo. Gone." Jackson has now responded to these reports, blaming the deletions on an overly-zealous management team and encouraging fans to "keep posting" clips of her tour as long as they're short.

"My team is passionate about protecting the intellectual property we are creating for the tour and possible future projects," said Jackson in a message posted on Twitter. "It was never their intention, acting on my behalf, to have social media accounts removed. Permitting the use of long clips does present a contractual problem for these projects. I hope you understand. I trust the fans will use their short recordings for their own memories and to share on their social media networks of choice."

Instagram, however, says it might also have had a hand in the takedowns. In a statement given to Billboard, the company said that although it does remove infringing material when requested, some of the deletions may have happened by accident. "In this instance we have identified a bug that resulted in the removal of accounts that shouldn’t have been removed," said Instagram. "We have fixed the bug and are in the process of restoring the impacted accounts."

Although Jackson did not directly apologize to fans who may have lost photos during the deletions, she was enthusiastic about their ongoing support: "I love and appreciate my fans," she said. "I want you to know that I enjoy watching the short video clips of how you are Burning It Up at the Unbreakable shows. Please keep posting them."