WASHINGTON: Meta apologised for suspending the Instagram account of the "No Kings" protest movement over the weekend, attributing the shutdown to a sharp increase in activity that looked like automated bot traffic rather than human exchanges.

Demonstrators gathered at thousands of events across the United States on Saturday decrying President Donald Trump's aggressive deportation efforts, war in Iran and other policies in the third round of the "No Kings" rallies.

The Instagram account used by organisers and attendees, however, was offline for more than an hour. And Meta spokesman Andy Stone wrote in a post on X that it took longer to fix problems with organisers' access to the accounts.

Stone said network security systems detected the use of a Claude tool reading profiles, posts, and hashtags, with the rate sharply increasing in intense bursts on Oct 17.