Instagram is one of the 21st Century’s most loved mobile applications. We all spend at least an hour a day scrolling through pictures, videos, and reels, and the colorful content spread throughout the app allows us to escape from our regular lives whenever we need a break. If you’re an active Instagram user, there might have been a time when you experienced getting shadowbanned.
Getting shadowbanned is a huge pain, especially if you haven’t done anything to deserve it! However, before you panic, don’t forget that there might be various reasons that have caused your account to get shadowbanned.
This article will talk about what getting shadowbanned means, how to test if it has happened to you, and what to do to remove your account from being shadowbanned.
Let’s take a closer look!
Table of Contents
What is the Instagram Shadowban?
After your account gets shadowbanned, only your followers will be able to see what you post. However, other Instagram users won’t be able to see anything you post, especially if your account is public and you have a large following. This means that your posts won’t appear on anyone’s Explore page or feed, and as a result of being shadowbanned, your visibility to broader audiences will decrease rapidly.
Why Does Instagram Shadowban Instagram Accounts?
When your account gets shadowbanned, it means that Instagram has either hidden or restricted your account. This usually occurs because you might have violated a community guideline or posted a comment, photograph, or video that Instagram thinks is inappropriate.
You might also use too many hashtags, leading Instagram to flag your account because they think you are spamming the platform. Additionally, some Instagram users enlist the help of bots to grow their following and increase their overall presence. However, using bots means that you could be flagging yourself since you’re violating the platform’s terms. As a result, Instagram shadowbans your account by using bots to increase the number of followers and boost your engagement with other accounts on the platform.
How To Test If You’ve Been Shadowbanned
If you feel as though something weird is happening with your Instagram account and think that you might have been shadowbanned, don’t worry! There’s a good chance that you didn’t do anything wrong. Instagram might have shadowbanned your account through no fault of your own.
One of the worst things about suspecting that your account has been shadowbanned is that you won’t know if it has or has not been shadowbanned! For instance, you might have noticed that the number of likes on your posts has decreased. You may have also seen that fewer people than average watch your Instagram stories and engage with them by clicking on affiliate links. It’s worth remembering that even if the amount of engagement with your account has come down, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve been shadowbanned. It could mean that some changes in the Instagram algorithm cause fewer people to see your account.
However, if you start to feel that your account has been shadowbanned, you must remember that there are some things that you can do to test your theory. These options are listed below.
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Check your hashtags.
If growing your Instagram following is something you’re constantly thinking about, you know that hashtags are one of the fastest and most efficient ways. However, if you believe that you’ve been shadowbanned, one of the first things you should do is check your hashtags. You might have used a hashtag that Instagram considers offensive and has blocked recently. For instance, you might run a makeup and beauty account and use the hashtag beautyblogger in multiple posts. Even though this hashtag doesn’t have any offensive words, Instagram has flagged this hashtag as offensive and a violation of community guidelines. Therefore, using a hashtag like this could cause your account to get shadowbanned.
Reduce the amount of time that you spend on the app or website.
Whether you use Instagram on your phone or browser, it’s important to remember that overusing the platform could mean that you get flagged as a bot. There are limits to how many times you can post pictures, stories, or reels, and there is also a limited number of hashtags that you can use when posting media on the app. There are also limits on the number of posts you can like at once.
To test if you’ve been shadowbanned, we recommend limiting your posting of hashtags and media while refraining from overusing the platform. You haven’t been shadowbanned if you can still post and interact with other followers normally. However, you might have been shadowbanned if you cannot interact with other Instagram users or post media.
Ask a follower for help.
The third way to test if you’ve been shadowbanned is to ask a follower for some help. The most important part of this step is to ensure that you haven’t been following that person back. You must also ensure that you aren’t enlisting the help of a follower that is a spam account or an Instagram bot. Once you’ve picked the follower to ask for help, you must send them a message asking them to create a new account or unfollow you.
Once that follower has done so, the next step is to post something. Ensure that you include all the hashtags you usually put in your captions. After posting the picture, ask the follower whose help you’ve enlisted to check if they can still see your post. You must also ask them to go to the hashtag page of one of the hashtags you included in your post. To successfully test if you’ve been shadowbanned, it would be best if you asked them to check the hashtag page of a tag that isn’t commonly used. For instance, the hashtag ‘fashion’ has millions of posts under it, but a more niche hashtag like ‘fashionable girl’ will yield better results. If your post doesn’t appear under the ‘Recents’ section of the hashtag, then your account might have been shadowbanned.
How to Get Unshadowbanned on Instagram
Find out Banned and Blacklisted hashtags and remove them from your posts
One of the quickest and more successful ways to get un-shadowbanned is to do some research on hashtags. Read through the list of banned and blocked hashtags on Instagram, and then go through all your posts to see if you might have accidentally used some of them. To make things easier for you, we’re including that list below.
A
- #abdl
- #addmysc
- #adulting
- #alone
- #always
- #armparty
- #asiangirl
- #ass
- #assday
- #assworship
B
- #beautyblogger (Please note: the #beautybloggers, with an ‘s’ at the end works.)
- #besties
- #bikinibody
- #boho
- #brain
C
- #costumes
- #curvygirls
D
- #date
- #dating
- #desk
- #direct
- #dm
E
- #edm
- #eggplant
- #elevator
G
- #girlsonly
- #gloves
H
- #hardworkpaysoff
- #hawks
- #hotweather
- #humpday
- #hustler
I
- #ice
- #instasport
- #iphonegraphy
- #italiano
K
- #kansas (**Note: #kansascity works.)
- #kickoff
- #killingit
- #kissing
L
- #loseweight
- #lulu
M
- #master
- #mileycyrus
- #milf
- #mirrorphoto
- #models
- #mustfollow
N
- #nasty
- #newyearsday
- #nudity
O
- #overnight
P
- #parties
- #petite
- #pornfood
- #prettygirl
- #pushups
R
- #rate
- #ravens
S
- #saltwater
- #samelove
- #selfharm
- #single
- #singlelife
- #skateboarding
- #skype
- #snap
- #snapchat
- #snowstorm
- #sopretty
- #stranger
- #streetphoto
- #sunbathing
- #swole
- #shower
- #shit
T
- #tag4like
- #tagsforlikes
- #tanlines
- #todayimwearing
- #teens
- #teen
- #thought
U
- #undies
V
- #valentinesday
W
- #workflow
Y
- #Youngmodel
Avoid mass commenting, liking, or following and DMing.
Even though it is essential to use your Instagram account regularly to boost your engagement, there comes a time when you might overuse your account. You might comment on too many posts, follow too many accounts, or direct message too many people. While doing all these things is essential, doing them too often could mean that your account gets flagged as a bot or a spam account. This leads Instagram to think that an anonymous user has set up an automation system to spam other people, leading you to get shadowbanned. To prevent your account from getting shadowbanned, it would be best to refrain from using your account too often.
Remove or Unlink dubious apps from your Instagram account.
To remove the shadowban on your account, you must remove or unlike dubious apps from your Instagram account. There are times when third-party apps gain access to your private data. As a result, your account might get shadowbanned because Instagram thinks you are the person behind the third-party app. Therefore, you need to take a few simple steps to remove and unlink unauthorized or dubious apps from your Instagram account.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Go to your Instagram settings.
- Find the option that says security, and click on it.
- Next, scroll to the option that says Apps and Websites.
- When you reach this option, you will see three options: Active, Expired, and Removed.
- Click on the option that says Active, and if there are any apps or links that you might have unknowingly linked your account to, remove them immediately.
Don’t use unrelated hashtags over and over.
A common mistake that Instagram users make is putting unrelated hashtags in their posts. For instance, a food account might post hashtags like ‘on vacation’ in their pictures! Instagram might see these hashtags and think that they are spam. To remove the shadowban on your account, it would be best to remove hashtags that aren’t related to your posts.
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Contact Instagram support.
Get in touch with the Instagram support team to try and get to the bottom of the problem. The Instagram team can help pinpoint why your account is facing issues, and they can help you figure out what to do going forward.
- Take a break for a week and have patience.
While this last option might sound painful, it might be the most helpful! Take a break from Instagram for a week and wait patiently. It might help more than you think!
Summary
In this article, we walked you through a list of reasons why your account might have gotten shadowbanned and what to do to resolve the problem. While getting shadowbanned is inconvenient and annoying, it is easily resolvable. Hopefully, our methods helped you out!
About Carson Derrow
