SHADOWBAN/EXPLORE BAN
As a recent victim and survivor of this dreadfully stupid headache curated by Instagram, i thought i would share some insights about Instagram’s shadowban. If you’re already experiencing this then apologies this article is coming late, hopefully it would prevent a further occurrence.
A lot of Instagram accounts have been having issues with low engagement and hashtags not working for a while but only recently has it become more common and frequent. Happened to friends of mine that own big accounts and right after everything was back to normal, the ban came on again. I also recently just came clear of the ban and luckily for me so far, i have been invisible to the ban’s radar.
What is a shadowban?
Now for those who don’t know, a shadowban (on Instagram) is a ban that prevents your account from growing, as your posts fail to show up on the explore page. Also hashtags don’t work and your account basically becomes invisible to people that don’t follow you. It causes low engagement and zero growth!
How do i know if i’m shadow banned?
An easy way to know if you’ve been a victim of the ban is to comment an hashtag under your recent post (eg #instasucks) and searching for that hashtag from a second account (one that doesn’t follow your account). If your accounts post doesn’t show up among the recent posts for that hashtag then you might be explore banned, if it does show up then your account is fine. (Ensure that the account you check from doesn’t follow your account cause the post will show up either way if the account follows your account)
Why do accounts get shadow banned?
Ideally i’m guessing its a measure Instagram installed to prevent bots and fake accounts from cramping up the software, so doing things like deleting 10 posts a day on a new account, commenting 50 times a day on a new account, having your posts reported, your posts getting deleted as a result of copyright claims etc! The list is super exhaustive. Personally i just see it as Instagram cutting the reach of business accounts to have them pay for promotions. That or they’re just trying to make their extinction date closer!
How to prevent being shadow banned?
Honestly can’t really say but just try as much as possible not to do the things i mentioned above. Try not to delete more than 4 posts a day from your account, don’t post like 50 times a day, always credit the rightful owners of videos you use so you don’t get a copyright claim filed against you, never use videos that have a high rate of getting people pissed off just for views; trust me you’ll regret it!
How long does a ban take?
Most bans take about two weeks; two long weeks of 0.0000 growth!
What can i do when i’m banned
You can continue posting on your account but just know the engagement would be disastrously brutal! I posted only once a day just to keep my following active and i still got as much as 300k views on every video (My account is a 400k page), thats because i grew the account well and the followers are super active, but still bad as my page used to get 1.5m views on average. Try to stay away from anything spam/bot like during this period as it could prolong your days in jail!
What do i do after the ban is lifted?
After the ban is lifted, your account gets reverted to the abilities of a new account. Basically what i mean is say before you used to like as much 200 posts a day, you might not be able to immediately as you would get error messages of some sort; just like a new account!
Hope this helps avoid getting banned and or if you already are, hope it helps you after the ban is lifted. Feel free to ask any questions and i’ll do my best to answer!
Can’t wait for the next app that would bury Instagram; fed up with the app!
