What we know about the Instagram Shadowban, and how to discover if you’ve been impacted?
There are swirling rumours around the internet about an Instagram Shadowban, directly affecting the reach of your Instagram account.
The phrase has been thrown around a lot, but many haven’t understood exactly what it is – and if they’ve actually been affected by the Instagram Shadowban or if they’re just struggling with really low engagement.
Here’s a breakdown of everything we know about the Instagram Shadowban, including chatting to Instagram users who have been affected, and those who thought they had – but really just needed to make some changes.
UPDATE: READ OUR LATEST BLOG POST TO SEE WHAT WE’VE LEARNED AFTER MONTHS OF RESEARCH INTO THE INSTAGRAM SHADOWBAN
What is the Instagram Shadowban?
Firstly, if you haven’t heard of it yet, an Instagram Shadowban is when your hashtags become ‘un-discoverable’.
You can use your hashtags, however you’ll only show up in hashtag feeds of your current followers.
This means that your images won’t show up in hashtag feeds of anyone who DOESN’T follow you, obviously reducing the reach of your account and making it much harder to reach a new audience.
How do you know you’ve been hit with an Instagram Shadowban?
Most people report a dramatic reduction in likes and comments on their images, and a quick look over those people interacting with your account are only those who already follow you.
The easiest way to find out if you’ve been hit is to post a picture then ask a friend to un-follow you (or someone who doesn’t follow you already), and check the hashtag feed to see if your picture shows up.
If it’s not showing up in the gallery of images – then there could be a chance you have been shadow banned.
What would cause an Instagram Shadowban?
After MUCH investigating, here are all the reasons (at the time of writing this post) that we know that could potentially cause cause a problem –
1. Using Bots, Automated services and Buying Followers.
Instagrams terms of service are incredibly clear – do not use anything that automates, including using bot programs to comment as you, or automatic posting services, period. (To confirm, Plann our visual planner and Instagram scheduler sends you a reminder to post and DOES NOT risk your account in anyway. We like to sleep at night knowing you’re safe.)
How would they know?
One minute your device is getting picked up in Los Angeles (where the IP address is of the automation service that you use is), then next minute you’re using your phone in Chicago with another IP address. This straight away raises red flags and looks suspicious.
2. Using the same hashtags for months on end.
We’ve discovered that for some users that have been given a shadowban, if you’re continuously using the same hashtags for extended periods of time Instagram might think you’re being a little spammy. We’re still looking into this but we always recommend to keep your hashtags fresh and change your tags up – there is no limit to the amount of hashtag sets you can save inside Plann.
3. Surges of activity.
If you suddenly go on a follow (or un-follow) spree, or like a whole bunch of images all at once – we’re keeping an eye out but this could potentially cause a trigger.
4. ‘Broken Hashtags’
Sometimes Instagram cracks down on some of the content shared inside a hashtag, for example something as innocent as #petite could might be overrun with posts that are very NSFW! Instagram have started being more aware of R18 material, so if you’ve using a hashtag that has been overrun with these types of posts – you might find your whole post might be effected.
How do you know if you’re using a broken tag?
If you click on this hashtag, there is no ‘top posts’ section, and you won’t be able to scroll passed the first page of images – you’ll find it has been limited.
Sometimes there’s even a message at the bottom that states the tag has been limited due to abuse.
If you remove this broken hashtag from your set, you might see an instant lift of the hashtag problem.
Is Instagram aware of this, or acknowledge what’s going on?
On the 1st of March, Instagrams Facebook page posted the following message, acknowledging that there is an issue with hashtag search and to continue to focus on creating great content.
There are many comments from frustrated users asking for this to be correctly, where Instagrams Community Team have said ‘We do not currently have the resources to fix this problem.’ Hmm.
Facebook representative called this ‘Intended Functionality’.
Thanks to the investigative reporter-esque skills of Kaitlin Pierce from PierceSocial.com, she was able to share information and knowledge she got from the mothership themselves who have mentioned that this is an ‘Intended Functionality’.
Kaitlin has spent weeks hounding a customer service support agent who spent time speaking to her about what some of her clients are experiencing (seriously, she must be a unicorn, un-heard of!) and what it might mean.
Source: http://piercesocial.com/everything-know-instagrams-hashtag-problem-shadowbanning/
Is this a new type of Hashtag Algorithm?
It appears so!
Seems Hashtags now have their own algorithm that impacts business accounts and personal accounts, flagged as business.
Here’s an extract from Kaitlin article as sourced above, where she keeps readers up-to-date with each conversation with her contact.
UPDATED: April 10, 2017 – “Essentially, the algorithm contains countless factors and for each user, it is different.”
I wanted to know more about how the algorithm works. This is all they seem to be willing to give me at this time.The most detail that I can provide is that there is a unique algorithm that determines what qualifies a post to be high volume. It’s a combination of Likes, Comments, Views, and about 6 other variables and factors that determine which posts go in the area for Top Posts.
“The most detail that I can provide is that there is a unique algorithm that determines what qualifies a post to be high volume. It’s a combination of Likes, Comments, Views, and about 6 other variables and factors that determine which posts go in the area for Top Posts. The Top Posts will show up at the very top and just under that is the section for Most Recent. Essentially, the algorithm contains countless factors and for each user, it is different.”
How do I fix an Instagram Shadowban?
Instagrams customer support are notoriously nonexistent, so here’s a collective of what we’ve discovered has worked for other users:
1. Ease up on Instagram activity for a little while.
We’ve seen within 24-48 hours of returning to a ‘normal level of activity’ can everything returns to normal.
2. Check your hashtags, are you mixing them up regularly, or are you unaware that you’re using a broken/blocked hashtag?
3. Have you been using Automation/bots?
There are two things we’ve heard of that have worked for others. Obviously, the first thing to do is to stop using automated services as we’ve heard some users have their Instagram Shadowban lifted fairly quickly, however if nothing is working, you might find it’s your IP address that’s the problem and in some drastic measures a new device has been the fix.
To confirm, we’re not 100% on these as our Plann Instagram account has not been impacted and we are relying on conversations we’ve been having with other Instagram users from around the world and will update this resource as we learn more.
How Plann can help
We’re an app that sits on your phone, so we act as you.
You can organise your media, drag and drop until your feed looks lovely – then when it’s time to post we prompt you to post to Instagram yourself. This means nothing is automated, and your posts always come from YOUR IP address, so you always get organic reach and there is no risk to your account being impacted by ‘Automation.
In conclusion
If you’re using Instagram and not behaving ‘like a bot’, doing masses of activity all at once and checking your hashtags regularly, we’ve seen no evidence so far that your account will be hit with an Instagram Shadowban.
Although our opinion may change over time with more information, we see no reason why Instagram would ban users who are using the platform in an authentic way and how it was designed to be used.
We do know that Instagram change their algorithm regularly and we can see changes to our engagement from time to time and could explain a drop in engagement, so we recommend not to panic straight away and understand how engagement is a more important metric to spend time growing.
We recommend reading these two resources we’ve made especially to keep your Instagram game on track.
How To Find Hashtags to Attract Authentic Followers
AND
5 Ways To Instantly Increase Your Engagement Rate
Have you got an Instagram shadowban?
Have you had different results than what we’ve discussed above, or been able to have the ban lifted?
Share your findings with the Plann community below!
Yep – Definitely affected me HARD for the last couple of weeks. When my business is about and on instagram this is devastating.
Hi Laura,
Completely understand but I’ve had some great emails to say that easing up on activity and taking a look at hashtags has fixed it – a few even suggested that swapping back to a personal account had an affect within 24 hours.
I don’t have a business account and mine has been affected dramatically. I do have blog and but my blog is not my profession, it is a hobby. I was put under a ban today when I tried to use a specific hashtag and IG won’t let me. While I do this for fun, it’s extremely difficult to grow an audience that would hopefully let me make this a business venture if they are restricting what I can and can’t post. And not only are they restricting, they’re restricting tags that are relevant to my pictures. I’m beyond annoyed.
Absolutely. Over the Christmas period I expected insta engagement to drop, but it never picked up to what it was in the months prior to that break, which had been gaining momentum. Where my images were getting 1500-2000 average ‘likes’ they now seems to be getting around 600-700. As a result of not being seen as much, the growth increase in new followers has been far less than in the later half of 2016. I do regularly use hashtags, cycling through a bunch including some broken ones. I have been testing to see which to stop using. I switched back from a business account to a personal one a week ago, but have yet to notice any difference in reach.
So frustrating! Thanks for finding your research!
Thanks Jenelle – it’s great to hear how you’re already looking into how it works for your account and trying new things – I’m sure we’ll work it out soon! xx
Hi Plann – I was affected 3 weeks ago and nothing has seemed to change things. On Monday, March 20, I received a push notification someone was trying to access my account in Portugal. I don’t know if this triggered it or not, but I have since changed my password 5 times and reported the “hacking” to Instagram and “recovered” my account. I have run an Ad on Facebook & IG and even that would not show up in a hashtag search. I just read over the article you linked too, but my posts will show up in NONE of the hashtag searches when I initially post them, therefore no engagement can be achieved outside my current followers. I am hidden from Geotags/Location tags as well. I have in-app messaged Instagram, I have messaged on Facebook IG for Business, I have changed from a personal IG (I’m a freelance pastry chef/food stylist) to a Business account and back. I have slowed use (I have no entirely stopped and maybe will try that). I have NEVER used a bot or any follow/unfollow service. I post maybe 2-4 times per week and alternate hashtags-ish. I could probably work on the alternating hashtags more, however, I see other folks using similar things (and I’ve deleted hashtags around the time of the issue on those posts to no avail) and they’re not banned (to my knowledge) or overly large hashtags. I’ve tried taking brownies to the Los Angeles Facebook offices (true story) and got shut down at the front desk where I filled out yet another form. I’ve had 5 different friends reach out to folks they know at Facebook/IG, but nothing has come from that. I’ve cried. I’ve become horribly anxious and stressed (as it’s a large portion of my marketing strategy as a freelance pastry chef attempting to create her own dessert catering business). I actually got a brand new phone (not in an attempted fix, but just because I wanted to upgrade to the iPhone 7 Plus for the camera) a week and a half after the issue and that hasn’t helped. I’ve got a second account I’ve been wanting to start (same name as my blog) as a second and slightly different content strategy, but I’m hesitant because of using the same phone/IP that it’ll be targeted before I even get a chance to start. I’m now at a place where I’m attempting cutting back on liking my friends posts and saying F-it and posting now as normal, as I’m about to start a huge cross country move and new journey (and *try* to be calm and zen-like in the process and not care that IG is randomly targeting people to “ruin” on social media). Just wanted to share my story/nightmare! x
Oh Wow! Beth! I would’ve cried too!
Thank you so much for sharing your unbelievable story, how frustrating for you!!
(and I also can’t believe no-one at FB land jumped in immediately as soon as they smelled your brownies?! What is WRONG with them?)
I’m hoping someone reads this who’s had experience with accounts being hacked and comes to your sweet rescue.
Much love, Christy xx
I’ve cried, too, Beth. No matter what I do, my engagement is waaay down.
The same has happened to me. I started a new account, but the shadowban remains.
Thank you for the information! Our business IG has been receiving horrible engagement. We have never used any sort of bot service. We do, however have 4 owners who live in different areas (3 in multiple areas of one state, and 1 in another state). Do you think that the different IP addresses accessing our account on a regular basis could be contributing?
After hearing about the shadow ban, I was so scared it would affect me. I’m a really new account, only active since October. I hit 200 followers at the end of March and was so excited, and my following has steadily grown to 250 (this weekend). Once I heard about the shadow ban, I started diversifying my hashtags a little bit, but clearly not enough.
Today, on Easter, I posted a simple photo with a caption about what I was up to today, and it only got 10 likes. Usually my posts get between 60-100 likes, so this was odd for me. I opened an incognito window on my computer and entered one of the lesser-used hashtags that was included in the post – #phxigers – and sure enough, my post was not there. I could see where it should be on my phone when I clicked the hashtag from my account, and it was skipped over in the search, along with all of my other images.
I’m totally devastated. I am just getting started, I’m a real person with a real blog and real goals. I’ve never used a bot, I post legitimate, authentic comments on so many accounts, and I am the only one who uses and engages on my Instagram account. I thought being such a small account would keep me safer, but I was totally wrong. I’m going to take a 24-hour break and see if that helps. Praying!!
Has taking a break worked?
Very useful and detailed information! I’d been affected by this too, and I’m kinda suspecting now, they have another sort of shadowban by which they keep you from being visible to new users regardless of the visibility in hashtags. ‘Cause I’ve noticed sonetimes likes drop even when hashtags work. I thought we were customers to Instagram, but it seems like Instagram always tries to educate us :/
This is making a lot more sense. I have also felt the reach of my account has dropped. Not as dramatic as some but it’s definitely dropped from what it was before. It seems like Instagram is making it harder for us to use. I’m not sure why using the same hashtags would lead us to this path. Seems bit silly to me
I was hit with the ban last week. I’m a writer, and use the platform to promote my work. I’ve never used BOTs, however have an assistant in another state that would log in when I’d be off grid. The ban has dropped my engagement significantly, and after changing back to a personal account, logging out for 48 full hours and slowing my activity the ban hasn’t left been lifted. Hoping to see this awful ban lifted soon. Thanks for the additional info.
I’m actually trying that right now. I disabled my account for 2 days, tomorrow I will go back into it. I thought two days would reset it. Someone said 2 days worked for them. Another person’s comment I read somewhere else said they logged out for 3 weeks and it went back to normal.
On Easter, I posted a makeup picture that took me an hour to take and I looked at the website and saw that the post was put on shadow ban that night. I really wanted my favorite makeup brand to see the post because I worked hard o putting it together and taking the picture and cleaning it up. They put it on ban around the time that it got 5k+ likes. It seems like they block posts that get a lot of likes ‘too quickly’. Like I checked my post on another account that was not following mine and it showed up in the top of the hashtag. I do not understand how I would be seen as a ‘bot’ when I have had my Instagram for 6 years and I have posted a million and one selfies. I think it has a lot to do with Facebook owning it because ever since then Instagram has had a problem with engagement and the orders of people timelines.
I’ve just returned to the UK from a vacation in Southern Africa – made many new friends and, as an amateur photographer said – don’t worry, I’ll post my pictures on Instagram, you’ll be able to see the results and we can keep in touch. Posted 25 pictures over 5 days (at 5 a day) and realised on the 26th something was wrong with the 26th posting (number of responses dropped and only my followers were commenting). I’ve posted over 500 pictures since being a user, so it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with how to use the app.
Further research has revealed that I have been shadowbanned and ALL of my pictures have been pulled from general search.
For a Social Media application this is unforgivable – I relied on Instagram and it’s failed me big time. I doubt I’ll ever get to hook up with my new friends now – who are probably thinking I haven’t been bothered to post the photographs.
2 days ago i got a drop from 150 likes a post. Checked my account and i was shadow bannend glad i know what is is now. I can confirm i use follow/unfollow tools from diffrent providers. I did a Spike in follow/unfollow in 2 days, after that i see that i get less likes. Also i use 5 diffrent sets of 30 hashtags from my start 3 months ago. Before my ban i get a message that i liked to much and get a block for an hour wat never happend before. Gone take a view days of, maybe it helps
After 2 days i logged in after deleted all my autorized programs for instagram. Also i deleted all my hashtags from 10 of my latest post.
I think that it works!
Now i used 8 new hashtags and i can find myself under the hashtags with an other account and im safe with the test :). Only problem now is that i dont stand in populair anymore and that is new. On my account i stand in populair but with another account i still find myself under the hashtags but not under populair with 2/3 of the tags. Can someone tell me more about this?
Its beter but still not how it was
Srry for my broken english
Did it help to stay off of it? Have u tried logging out for a few days?
Hi Plann Team,
I’ve gone from 10k+ likes down to 2-4k likes in a matter of 2-3 days.. Incredibly frustrating, especially since I can’t quite figure out why.
– I haven’t used automated apps for over a year
– Not a business account (I share architecture, design etc.)
– I did find 4 third party apps attached to my account but have since removed them as of a couple of days ago (could this maybe take time to remove completely from my account)
– I’ve now changed my password too
– I don’t go on liking or following sprees
– I do try to change my hashtags as much as possible but do sometimes use the key ones in my industry; #architecture #design etc. because as you’ve stated, hashtags = growth
I’m now going to hold off from posting for a couple of days in hope that my ban will be lifted.
Can you provide any other explanations or ways to help lift the ban quicker?
Best,
A
Hi
Thank you for sharing. I am gonna take your advice and gonna ease down. I also found something which help on some occasion, thought of sharing it with you if it helps
http://www.rockingbhootni.com/2017/04/instagram-shadowban-and-workaround/
Hi Chrissy (I assume this is Chrissy?) — thanks for the great info. I manage two accounts that are dealing with banned images, and I think so far the most important practical thing I’ve learned is that it appears that mostly *posts* are banned, as opposed to users.
I suspect for many casual users, the ban might relate to using “business techniques” for hashtags. As an experiment, I just removed hashtags from a banned post where I had originally placed the hashtags as the first comment. (I do this for two reasons: so that I can push posts directly to Facebook. and so that people looking at the page’s posts don’t have to look at all the relevant hashtags because I think they’re kind of ugly.) I then put the hashtags back — but in the main text of the post. The post was immediately unbanned.
I’m not sure why Instagram’s algorithm would flag this kind of thing, but I’ve checked it on a few different posts and so far the results are consistent. In fact, when I read this article and you mentioned that Plann’s Instagram is so far unaffected, I got curious and went to see how you hashtag your posts. I tested this image (https://www.instagram.com/p/BTGwvothUm4/?taken-by=plannthat) using this tool (http://shadowban.azurewebsites.net/), and the post pops up as banned. 🙁
You probably will want to check on that, but it does support my hypothesis that users putting hashtags into the initial comment as is a *lot* of people’s habit are triggering a shadowban.
Just following up. Are you still seeing that using hashtags in the initial post work best?
I’ve been affected too. Actually it happened about a month ago. I stood off Instagram for about 3 days and it went back to normal. But since you mentioned mixing up hashtags a bit, it makes sense because I’m back where I was a month ago, shadow banned again and I think it’s because I keep posting the same hashtags. I’ll lay off again for a few days. It just sucks when you see your followers dropping off. I’ve found a lot of business through Instagram so it sucks to wait. I also think business pages get affected worse because I think Instagram is trying to shove the “promote” button down our throats to reach engagement.
When you say you “stood off” instagram, did you log out and not log back in at all? I’m taking a break for a few days to try and get my ban lifted, but I don’t know if I can go in and check my DM’s!
Just realized this has happened to me. Private account under 200 followers. Never used a service,it’s acting as if it’s private. Funny thing is I cant figure it out why I share at most 2-3 pics a day. Hope this helps someone.
So, after reading the causes for shadow ban I find it fair enough (to say the least) that such people get shadow banned. I always disliked the f4f, l4l attitude, bots, annoying, meaningless, repetitive hashtags found it extremely spammy and annoying. Marketing in one thing, spam is another.
For once good job instagram.
Except it’s not just people who use bots, it’s also people who have followed the rules, done everything manually, yet are still getting shadowbanned. I fail to see how Instagram has done a “good job” in any sense
I am so over instagram, and their little games they play on their users. Things like this are the reason I stopped using the platform. Banning hashtags. Creating an algorithm that is based on favoritism. And now they’ve made it so you don’t even know you’ve been blocked by someone. Instead of the “this user has blocked you” message, you just get an error page, and they make it seem like the user doesn’t exist. But if you log off, and type in the name, you can see they do. I did that with one person, when I tried to take their username, and it said it was taken. Turns out, I was blocked.