Former singer, actress and television personality Sofia Hayat, best known for participating in Salman Khan's controversial show Bigg Boss 7, recently revealed her Instagram account was deleted and she was blackmailed to pay money to reinstate it. Sofia insisted that her account did not violate any guidelines.
The former Bigg Boss contestant told ETimes that she received multiple warnings from Instagram about content removal and added that bots were used to target her account.
Sharing her ordeal, Sofia said, "A month ago, I got an Instagram message from someone saying that someone had paid a bot to make multiple complaints about my account. He said he could stop it from being taken down."
Sofia said she tried to get in touch with the team of Instagram but her efforts went in vain as she did not receive a clear response from them.
She then contacted the person who had sent her a message on Instagram and warned her about the alleged bot attack after her account got deleted. Sofia informed the news portal that the person blackmailed her and demanded money to get her account back.
"I had no idea what bots are, so I googled it. There are many people advertising services to take down Instagram accounts using bots for a price," she said.
Hours after sharing her ordeal, Sofia took to her official X account to reveal that she has created a new account on Instagram. "Hi everyone. I have now uoaded my new instagram account. I hope you will all rejoin me. It will be good to see you again. Hopefully noore blackmailing on this account (sic)," she wrote.
Sofia embraced spirituality and became a nun in 2016. She adopted the name Gaia Sofia Mother.
She has appeared in TV shows like 'Absolute Power', 'Comedy Nights Bachao', 'The Midnight Beast', 'Superdude', 'Jonathan Creek' and more.
