Instagram shadowban is one of the most common Instagram issues that users have been facing ever since the emergence of Instagram. Whether you are a consistent Instagrammer or just sometimes use it for fun, you surely have at least heard of shadowban and how it bothers users all over the platform.
Instagram shadowban freezes the growth of an Instagram account and its reach, and that’s why everybody hates it. In this article, we are going to get to know everything about Instagram shadowban and how to get rid of this nightmare.
What is Instagram shadowban?
Instagram shadowban is a kind of ban which makes an Instagram account’s posts to fade from the hashtag list of their chosen hashtags like there is a shadow on the posts avoiding them from being seen by others.
The most common sign of being shadowbanned is a huge drop in engagement and reach, especially from hashtags, that’s when you will come to know that the account is most probably shadowbanned. There is nothing worse than the Instagram shadowban for a person trying to promote an account and getting new audiences since it totally stops the engagement one can get from Instagram hashtags, and the profile would see zero growth! That’s a disaster for an account, that’s why we have to be aware of the reasons we get shadowbanned to be able to avoid them.
The Instagram shadowban issue is reported thousands of times on Instagram itself and communities like Reddit and Quora. It is a very common issue that a topic on Quora is made on “Shadowban”! The majority of Instagram problems are related to an account’s posts not showing up in hashtags and the huge drop in their engagement, which both of them are the effects of the Instagram shadowban.
What causes Instagram shadowban?
The Instagram shadowban does not happen out of the blue and from nowhere. You must have done something wrong, which led to getting shadowbanned. There are some reasons why an account gets shadowbanned, and some of them are as listed below:
- Using banned hashtags
If you were unaware of this fact, let me tell you that some Instagram hashtags are broken, abused, or banned. You surely might be thinking, what is a banned Instagram hashtag? Banned hashtags are the hashtags that Instagram has detected to violate its terms. Some of these hashtags have been misused and contain a lot of inappropriate content which was against Instagram’s Terms, so they got detected by Instagram and their use of either limited or banned completely.
Here a question pops up on your mind asking about how can we know which hashtags are banned on Instagram? The answer is very simple, and it has only a few easy steps to find out banned Instagram hashtags. Just take a look at one of our blogs on How to check if a hashtag is banned on Instagram?
- You exceeded daily limits on Instagram
Instagram, like all other social media, has its own hourly/daily limits which if exceeded, can have consequences like a temporary ban which if repeated several times can be changed into a permanent ban, and as result, you’ll lose your account. If users keep liking, commenting, following/unfollowing at a fast speed, and over the set limit, they are putting their accounts at the risk of getting shadowbanned. You need to keep track of your daily activities on Instagram, which I confess, is not easy and needs accuracy and time.
- Using the same Instagram hashtags for a long time
It is one of the main reasons why people get shadow-banned on Instagram. I bet so many of you use the same hashtags with the same quantity under your posts on Instagram without knowing how harmful it can be. We need to vary our set of hashtags at least once a week and try not to use all 30 hashtags all the time and change the number of hashtags you use each time.
- Getting reported by others
One of the quickest ways to show up on the Instagram shadow-ban radar is by continuously getting reported by other Instagram users. People might report accounts due to different reasons like abusing their beliefs or interests of violating Instagram’s terms, impersonation, spamming, or even due to personal enmity.
Try to avoid getting reported by posting good and original content. Also, keep in mind to do not violate any of Instagram’s terms of services and try not to abuse anyone or any group of people either directly or indirectly.
Am I shadowbanned on Instagram?
The Instagram shadow-ban is not so hard to figure out. When an Instagramer notices drop in his Instagram engagement or finds out that the posts he posts do not show up in any of the chosen hashtags, he thinks he is most probably shadow-banned on Instagram. But not every drop in engagement means being shadow-banned. Try the ways below to see if your account is trapped in the shadow-ban nets or not.
- Get help from other Instagrammers
The first thing you have to do is check if your post appears in the hashtags you have chosen for your post or not. To do this, try posting a picture with 2-3 hashtags that are not that popular. Next, ask a friend to unfollow you and search the hashtag from their search bar. (The reason why I ask you to do this is that when one is Instagram shadowbanned, their post is shown to their followers, but new audience and non-followers are the ones who cannot see their posts on those specific hashtags)Next, ask a friend to unfollow your account and then search for one of the hashtags used in that recent post. If the post appears under the hashtag (either in the Top Posts or Recent Posts), then you’re safe. But if the post did not show up, you are unfortunately shadowbanned.
- Use a shadowban tester
There are a few tools over the web known as shadowban testers, which claim to tell users whether their posts are shadowbanned or not. These tools are not guaranteed and might not be accurate. Below I am going to introduce shadowban tester and its functionality more.
What is an Instagram shadowban tester, and how does it work?
An Instagram shadowban tester is a tool that asks for user’s ID and checks their latest posts to see if they exist on the chosen hashtags or not. This way a shadowban tester would inform a user whether their account is shadowbanned or not. Out of the searches I made, I found two good shadowban testers that work better than the other similar websites.
“Tribber” and “Instagram shadowban tester” are the two reliable tools users can rely on for checking the possibility of being shadowbanned.
How long does Instagram shadowban last?
The Instagram shadowban sometimes lasts a week, for others, three weeks and others over one month. But the most common duration is reported 14 days, and after these 14 days, the effects of shadowban would start fading away little by little not all at once. During this time, the victim account is watched out by Instagram carefully, and even the smallest mistake would cause the account to get shadowbanned once again.
Is Instagram shadowban permanent?
No, I can assure you that the Instagram shadowban is not permanent. But if you keep making the mistakes you previously did, which got you shadowbanned, it can later cause the account to get permanently banned. It is very unfortunate when we feel our posts are reaching no new audience and are not getting any kind of interactions, but that is not the time to chicken out and feel disappointed. As regular Instagrammers, we have to find ways to get rid of this issue and carry on having our great Instagram experience and being shadowbanned should not stop us from enjoying the platform. That’s why I am here to provide ways to fix the annoying Instagram shadowban.
How do I get rid of Shadowban on Instagram?
Now the time has come to know about the ways to rid of Instagram shadowban and feel free once again. Below are the ways to fix the shadowban that has ruined your engagement.
- Stop using banned hashtags
Write a list of all the hashtags used under your posts recently and check them one by one to see which of them is banned and omit them from your list of hashtags forever and ever. Instagram sometimes makes detecting these hashtags easier by leaving a short message at the bottom of a banned hashtag page explaining that posts have been hidden for not meeting the community guidelines.
- Create an Instagram Pod or Engagement group
Most of you might never have heard of Instagram pods. Instagram pods or engagement groups are groups consisting of people who somehow have similar niche and interest, which help each other to get organic engagement by visiting each other’s accounts, liking posts, and leaving comments.Joining these groups would get an Instagram account, a real engagement which later leads to getting rid of the Instagram shadowban.
- Change your hashtag set and number all the time
Instagram lets you use up to 30 hashtags per post, and I will not say it is a bad thing to do but do not always apply this strategy. This is a wrong idea to think the more hashtags you use, the more your reach would become. You have to vary the number of hashtags once a while not to look spammy. And also, remember not to use the same set of hashtags repeatedly. Keep in mind that using irrelevant hashtags only because they are popular is very risky.
- Switch to a personal account
Some Instagrammers have said that they could get rid of the Instagram shadowban their accounts by switching back to a personal account from a business account. The reason why this might work is that we all know Instagram is owned by Facebook and Facebook is known to lower engagement just to make its users buy ads to get more reach.
- Take a break from Instagram activities
Taking 2-3 days off Instagram and not doing any activity, especially staying logged out from the app has helped some of the users to lift their shadowban, but it is not guaranteed since it depends on the reason you have been shadowbanned.
- Report the issue to Instagram
Most of us know that Instagram support absolutely does nothing to help its users, and it is very hard to get in touch with Instagram. You most probably would get no help, especially when talking about the Instagram shadow-ban because Instagram still does not confess to shadow-ban as an issue on the platform, but a lot of Instagramers get lucky when contacting Instagram, so give it a try. Just go to your profile, the “cog” icon, and scroll down until you find the “Report a Problem” option. Next, select “Something Isn’t Working” from the pop-up, and write a message describing your problem.
Tip: Do not directly say that you have been shadow-banned just say the posts you share aren’t showing on the selected hashtags.
- Use Instagram services to make things easier
One of the biggest reasons for getting shadow-banned is by crossing Instagram’s limits, as mentioned above. I recommend using Instazood which knows Instagram limits the best. As I mentioned above, when we feel that our accounts are shadow-banned, we have to stop doing activities for some days, or our Instagram actions might be affected and blocked by Instagram as well.
I have a solution to use your direct messaging function even when you are action blocked, shadow-banned, or Instagram is down. With Instazood DM online feature, you can easily send and receive DMs online from a PC, Mac, and smartphones and have all the direct messages is one place just like a messenger.You can set prepared message patterns and set to whom you’d like the messages to be sent, and Instazood would send them one after another without you even having to touch any device.
Conclusion
Falling into the shadow-ban trap is the worst experience an Instagram user would have, and knowing the actions which would lead to this nightmare can help you a lot. Just apply the tips above, and you’ll never get flagged again.