Instagram Shadowban: What Is It & How to Remove It (2024)

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 in 2023 and how to get rid of this nightmare.

What is Instagram Shadowban?

Instagram shadowban is a kind of ban that makes an Instagram account’s posts fade from the hashtag list of their chosen hashtags like there is a shadow on the posts preventing 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 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 has been 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, 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 listed below:

Using banned hashtags

If you are 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 in 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 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 a 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 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 shadowbanned 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, try not to use all 30 hashtags all the time, and change the number of hashtags we use each time.

Getting reported by others

One of the quickest ways to show up on the Instagram shadowban 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 not violate any of Instagram’s terms of service and try not to abuse anyone or any group of people either directly or indirectly.

How to know if you’ve been shadowbanned on Instagram?

The Instagram shadowban is not so hard to figure out. When an Instagrammer notices a 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 shadowbanned on Instagram. But not every drop in engagement means being shadowbanned. Try the ways below to see if your account is trapped in the shadowban 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 for 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 the 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.

Try an Instagram shadowban test

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 the shadowban tester and its functionality.

What is an Instagram shadowban tester, and how does it work?

An Instagram shadowban tester is a tool that asks for users’ IDs 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.

Want to try an Instagram shadowban test? “Tribber” and “Instagram shadowban tester” are the two reliable tools users can rely on for checking the possibility of being shadowbanned. In my opinion, using an Instagram shadowban tester is the easiest way to know if you’ve been shadowbanned on Instagram.

How long does Instagram Shadowban last?

The Instagram shadowban sometimes lasts a week, for others, three weeks, and for 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, 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 interaction, 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 to remove Instagram Shadowban?

Now that we know what is a shadowban and how to try an Instagram shadowban test, the time has come to know how to remove 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 niches and interests, 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 the wrong idea to think the more hashtags you use, the more your reach will become. You have to vary the number of hashtags once in a while so as not to look spammy. 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 remove Instagram 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 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 shadowban because Instagram still does not confess to shadowban as an issue on the platform, but a lot of Instagrammers 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 shadowbanned just say the posts you share aren’t showing on the selected hashtags.

Conclusion

Falling into the shadowban trap is the worst experience an Instagram user would have, and knowing the actions that would lead to this nightmare can help you a lot. Just apply the tips above, and you’ll never get flagged again.