#internetcode

What is an instagram shadowban?

I'm sure most of you have already heard what a shadowban is - if you regularly use hashtags on your instagram posts especially ones that are popular, you get a burst of likes from random accounts in the first few minutes... being discovered feels awesome, right? 😂 So when you get shadowbanned, your posts stop appearing in public hashtag feeds, and so all your likes come from only your followers, making it seem like your engagement has dropped.

How did I get shadowbanned?

There is no exact rule system that tells you how and when you get shadowbanned, but it seems to make sense that Instagram does this to accounts that break ANY sort of policy, for example:

using bots / apps or any automated or paid activity to boost your likes

going over an instagram limit, for example, liking, commenting or following/ unfollowing too much

using the same hashtags over and over again

using a banned hashtag

So how did I get unshadowbanned?

For me personally, I like posts too much (I know, sucks that Instagram is punishing me for being too active 😂) so I stopped posting for 3 days and liked within Instagram's hourly limits. Then my next post worked again!

Therefore it makes sense to "undo" whichever rule you may have broken, such as:

removing any apps that seem suspicious. You can do this by going on your settings on Instagram (only works through desktop) and clicking on Authorized apps.

stopping any paid activity to gain likes. Continuing would only hurt your account in the long term as these aren't real interactions so you have to continually put in more effort each time to reach the same amount of engagement if it starts dropping off.

stay within Instagram's hourly limits. Once again, there are no set rules so like/comment/follow like you would an average user, and don't go overboard. 😂 A good guide is no more than 200 posts an hour (around a post every 20 secs), 60 comments and 50 follows.

Shuffle your hashtags in different orders, and try to change them up each time so you're not using the same ones each time

check if your hashtags are broken/ reported as abusive. Usually these hashtags would show up as No Posts even though you'd suspect it'd be a popular tag to use

Other blogs have suggested logging out for a while and simply not liking/ following for a bit. I still was able to get unshadowbanned even though I still was active on it (just less spammy-like), so you can still go on as normal and it could get fixed up on its own if you wait 👍