Hidden ban. Shadow ban on Instagram: what is it, how to check, go out and remove it. What does “shadowban” mean on Instagram and how to check it

Artem Pavlutsky,

web analyst

Something on your Instagram page has become gray and “uncomfortable”! There are fewer people: only regular subscribers come in, and there are no outside visitors to be seen. They probably fell under a “gray” ban. Today we will find out what ShadowBan is, tell you about the signs of its onset and how to deal with the “shadow” hanging over your account.

The pressure is getting stronger!

Instagram has seriously decided to put an end to mass liking and mass following. Until recently, many were sure that ShadowBan did not exist. They say that it was invented by SMM specialists who have the “hooks” to properly promote their profile on Instagram. So they make up “grandmother’s” fairy tales and excuses about the “gray” and terrible bathhouse.

But the fairy tales turned out to be not fiction, but harsh reality. Anyone who steps onto the “narrow” path of gray advancement can encounter it. So we advise you to “listen” and take the information presented here into service.

Experts from BoS Technologies helped us understand this topic. .

You can also check by asking your acquaintances or friends to find the profile using the specified hashtags. If you can't find it, then you're in trouble.

To get out of the “shadow”:

• Stop using automatic promotion tools for 3-4 days.
• You must not subscribe or unsubscribe for several days.
• For this period, refuse automatic and independent posting.
• Go through all the hashtags used and remove questionable ones. Including from old posts.
• Clear application list. Those whose functionality is designed to manipulate subscriptions and likes are subject to unconditional deletion.
• You can access Instagram only from your phone or tablet.
• Do not respond to notifications in Direct about changing your password or validating your profile.

If this does not give results, then you should repeat this procedure again. In addition, “long-term” bans are imposed on profiles for serious violations. In this case, it is better to give up posting, subscriptions and likes for a whole month.

But in special cases, the algorithm described above will not be able to save you from the “shadow”. This happens if the profile has been caught in the massive use of mass liking. Users have also complained about the content of his content more than once.

In such a situation, to remove shadowban You can try contacting Instagram support. But the likelihood of the profile being “unblocked” is unlikely.

Make the task easier with the ARC Following Instagram mass liking tool from BoS Technologies. When creating it, the developers used an algorithm that prevents the action of ShadowBan.

The features of ARC Following Instagram are discussed in more detail in this material.

To avoid falling into the shadows, you should use hashtags correctly. They need to be “meaningfully” indicated in the text of the post, and not just listed. For example:

Today we walked around #Moscow and saw a lot of #sights of the #capital of our #homeland.

instagram Degree of Trust

BoS Technologies implemented own system assessing the trustworthiness of user profiles. In English, the name of the indicator sounds like “instagram Degree of Trust” (abbreviated as iDoT). It is measured on a scale of ten.

The highest trust score (10 points) is assigned to the following profiles:

• Whose age is more than 1 year.
• With more than 100 thousand subscribers.
• There are more than 5 comments per post.
• No complaints from other users.
• Was not detected in sending spam.
• Outgoing likes (from an account) – no more than 2 kilos per day.
• Does not use auto-posting services.
• No more than 100 users per day subscribe to the profile.

1 iDoT point is assigned to an account if:

• He has been found to be using automated promotions or sending spam emails.
• If you violate the limits on posting, subscriptions and likes.
• Frequent use of the same sets of hashtags in posts.
• Complaints have been received.

There are also Instagram pages with a zero iDoT value. This means that the profile has received a complete ban (blocked).

Accounts with a “trust” level from 1 to 3 are pages that fall under ShadowBan. If a profile with this indicator does not follow the recommendations prescribed above, then it has every chance of being completely “ignored”.

Related factors that negatively affect iDoT and lead to a “gray” ban:

• Authorization in the profile from many IP addresses registered in different countries.
• Using a large number of applications has almost no effect on the iDoT indicator if the connected programs do not perform suspicious actions (subscriptions, saves, likes).
• Authorization from “gray” IPs – this approach is often used by “low-grade” programs and applications for automatic promotion.

Promotion with maximum security

The problem of a “gray” ban calls into question the very use of special services for promotion on Instagram. Can you trust resources that, instead of helping to promote an Instagram blog, can cause a serious blow to its traffic? Yes, you can, but you need to be careful when choosing services. Be sure to check the services of such platforms to ensure compliance with promotion limits on Instagram. For example, the Instapromo service complies with all restrictions on subscriptions and liking. If you want, you can check it yourself - the platform provides 3 days of free access to its functionality.

Now you have the “means” and knowledge that will allow you to avoid falling into the “shadow” or get out of it. We hope that thanks to them your profile will “shine”, sparkle with new colors and attract even more visitors and subscribers. And this is not a fairy tale either.

If you have a lot of followers on Instagram, but your posts receive very few views, likes and comments, then your posts fall into the unviewed zone. This phenomenon is called a shadow ban. Some believe that this is a deliberate blocking related to violations of any rules, but I believe that this is a consequence of the new algorithm for issuing posts in feeds. This post is about shadowbanning.

Since the spring of 2017, that is, since Instagram updated its feeds, replacing the linear delivery of publications with a ranked one, information about a phenomenon called the shadow ban began to spread in the Instagram communities. Western Instagrammers (shadowban) previously started talking about the shadowban, who claimed that Instagram hides the publications of some users, showing them not in all feeds in which the post should be present. For example, when you add hashtags to a post, it does not appear on all pages in hashtag searches. When a post is published, it is also shown not to all subscribers, but only to a certain part. The idea of ​​a shadowban also had many opponents, who claimed that nothing like this was happening and that posts were shown properly in all feeds. I want to tell you about What exactly is a shadow ban and how can you get out of it??

What is a shadowban?

As you may have guessed, I am a supporter of the theory of the existence of a shadow ban. But, unlike most, I consider this phenomenon to be natural and not the intention of Instagram developers. Proving the existence of a shadowban, one of the online forum participants did an experiment by publishing a post with some low-frequency hashtags. From another account, he entered the search page for one of the specified hashtags and discovered that his post was not among the publications with this hashtag. His proof was supported by the fact that with the update of the method of displaying posts in the feed, many Instagrammers’ impressions and reach values ​​dropped, and along with them other indicators. But such evidence of an intentional ban on an Instagram account has no basis underfoot.

Why don't posts appear on the hashtag and geolocation search page?

Instagram, like any other social network, uses many servers located in different places to simplify and speed up its work. If everything went through one server, it would experience a very heavy load and would not have time to process all requests. But, all users were divided into servers and each accepts requests from its own part of users. The servers regularly exchange data with each other so that the entire Instagram contains up-to-date information on each of them. If Vasya published a post that was accepted by one server, this does not mean that this post will immediately appear on Vasya’s page for users assigned to another server. This will only happen after the servers have exchanged data.

To minimize this technical effect, the servers are divided by country, and when Kolya from Russia visits Vasya’s page from Russia, he immediately sees a new post. But Jack from America may not see Vasya’s post on the hashtag search page, since the servers have not yet had time to exchange information. Add to all this technical errors in the Instagram code, physical problems on the servers and other unpleasant moments, and you will get a significant delay in showing the post to users linked to other servers. Based on this, we can say that in this case there is no intentional disabling of posts.

Why are posts not seen by all subscribers?

Previously, Instagram had a linear algorithm for displaying publications in the feed, based on sorting by the date and time the post was created. That is, all publications were in the order in which they were added. To make Instagram more attractive and increase attention to beautiful accounts with regular, high-quality publications, the algorithm for generating feeds was changed to a ranked one. Now those publications that are made by accounts that interest us are higher than the rest in the feeds.

How does Instagram know which account we are interested in?

If you've been watching your feed, you've probably noticed that posts from accounts you follow appear higher than others. The same thing happens with others. But how does Instagram know who you are more interested in? Information about your likes, comments, saved posts, profile visits, story feed views, direct messages, and so on helps with this. The more you interact with an account, the more Instagram considers it interesting to you and tries to display its posts higher than others in the feed.

Small coverage is evidence that few people are interested in your account

Even if you have a large number of followers, your posts may only be shown to a very small number of them. Each of your subscribers may have accounts that are more interesting, from their point of view, than yours. Posts from all “more interesting” accounts will be higher than yours. For some, at the time of publication, your post may be in third position, for others in seventh, and for others in twenty-ninth. Since few people scroll through the feed until the 29th post, your content gets few views. This is a shadow ban!

A shadow ban is a manifestation of the uncompetitiveness of an account, as a result of which each new post from this account ends up in an unviewable part of the Instagram feed.

How to get out of a shadowban?

As I mentioned above, for your different subscribers, your posts will appear in different positions in the feed. Those followers who constantly like and comment on your posts, view your account and your stories will see you above the rest. Those subscribers who have not shown any interest in your account will be able to find your publications by scrolling down the feed many times. This is related to the fact that we most often receive likes and comments from the same subscribers

So what do you need to do to get out of the shadowban? You need to engage your subscribers as much as possible in the content you create. Obviously, the content should be of high quality and interesting, and only then you should think about how to show it to the maximum number of subscribers. Here is a list of recommendations that will help you increase your engagement level and bring your posts out of the dark zone:

• Experiment with the timing of your posts. Instagram users are most active during certain periods of time. During these same intervals, Instagrammers make their publications, hoping to get maximum coverage and involvement. This creates strong competition and posts from well-promoted profiles push posts from less-promoted accounts into the dark depths of the feed, where no one usually scrolls. Try posting your content in the morning, when new posts have not yet appeared, and old ones have already been viewed overnight. So, thanks to a little competition, your posts will have a chance to catch the eye of subscribers who decided to scroll through their feed in the morning;
• Be sure to add a call to action. You may not believe it, but the banal thing - “like the post and read on” - increases the number of likes. A call to simple action often resonates, so be sure to add it to your posts. This will increase your engagement rate;
• Run games and competitions based on likes and comments on your posts. Another way to increase your engagement rate and make your account interesting to more subscribers. In the beginning, the response rate for your contests will be very low, so run contests that benefit every participant. For example - “to everyone who puts + in the comments to this post, I and the three sponsors of this promotion will like the last 10 publications”;
• Show your post to all your subscribers through targeted advertising. If your subscribers don’t see your posts, advertise yourself to them. For example, when you created a mega cool post and are afraid that no one will see it. This way you can get views on your profile, which will certainly have a qualitative impact on further impressions to subscribers of your posts;
• Use mass following not to recruit new subscribers, but to interact with existing ones. Using mass following, you can regularly remind your subscribers of your existence. Let the program like and comment on all new posts of your subscribers. Then they will pay attention to you;
• Try to find a reason to contact your subscribers via direct message. Personal messages in direct message are another indicator of interaction, which certainly affects the display of your publications in the subscribers’ feed. If there is a holiday coming up and you decide to hold a holiday draw, you have promotions planned, or you just want to congratulate the user, write to your subscribers about it by sending them direct messages;
• Filter out bots and passive accounts. Dead accounts among your subscribers disrupt the reach and engagement statistics for your account, which are used by the new algorithm when displaying posts in the feed. To improve your performance, block all bots and dubious accounts.

That's all. I hope the article will help you get your posts out of the unviewed zone and you will begin to receive maximum response to your publications.

Shadow ban is one of the main problems of Instagram users. Often, working on personal and commercial accounts requires a lot of effort and time. But due to a shadow ban, the organic growth of users stops, which means the owner is deprived of the opportunity to expand his audience. Unfortunately, such a ban is not always noticeable right away. Therefore, it is always important to be informed.

Instagram's merciless shadow ban is the worst enemy of many users social platform. What is ShadowBan? If you notice that your page is visited only by users from the “followers” ​​category, and the activity of other users of the system is zero, this is a shadow ban. That is, your posts are not shown in Instagram’s internal search. They are not displayed in recommendations; they simply cannot be found using hashtags. And this is really no joke, since the profile’s reputation may suffer. You simply won’t be able to get the desired response from live users.

The situation is complex and ambiguous, since the page itself is not banned. A logical question: what to do in this case?

First you need to find out the possible reasons for the “punishment”:

1. Mass liking or mass following is used to promote a personal insta profile. This also includes auto-posting using unofficial applications.
2. The limit of permissible activity is exceeded (the user likes a lot, etc.).
3. Prohibited hashtags are used in posts. Perhaps this point should be considered in more detail.

An Instagram user can get graybanned by using popular tags to attract audience attention. The system often perceives such hashtags as words irrelevant to the content of the publication. This is how the possibilities for working with a social network are limited without a direct ban of the page. Recognizing an Instagram shadowban is not so easy. Some users may not even notice the changes, but they are there. It all depends on how long the blocking lasts. The reason for a ban can also be the regular use of the same tag in signatures. You should be careful with this.

Instagram shadow ban - how to check?

Tip: you can check your personal Instagram page using the link - https://shadowban.azurewebsites.net/. Having several accounts in social network, you can check the profile you are interested in from the “spare” page. In this case, you need to use hashtag search. If the search results do not contain the publication you posted, then everything is obvious - the shadow ban is active!

1. Repeating hashtags in several posts posted in a row.
2. Publishing more than 4 posts per day. This rule applies to young accounts created less than 45 days ago.
3. Ignoring like and subscription limits. Inaccurate use of services for automatic PR.
4. Overall trust in the page decreases.

How to get out of a shadowban on Instagram

When you encounter this problem for the first time, you need to know how to get out of the shadowban on Instagram. This type of blocking involves a ban for some publications. The page itself can work as usual. Pages that users of the social network complain about can be subject to a “gray ban”. The system welcomes such actions by users, as it helps clear Instagram of spammers and people publishing prohibited content.

As already mentioned, you can check your profile for a ban using special services. A simpler option is to ask your friends to find your publication using hashtags. If the request did not give the desired result, congratulations, you really have been banned.

Let's talk about how to remove the ban.

Instructions:

• Do not use automatic promotion services for 3-4 days;
• Do not follow other users. There is also no need to unsubscribe;
• Pause posting posts;
• Clean your device from applications and programs for mass liking, etc.;
• Do not access the social network via PC;

Now you know how to remove ShadowBan.

If the situation remains unchanged, repeat all points again. Just keep in mind that these tips do not apply to cases where a profile is banned for mass liking. This instruction It is also not relevant if other users of the system have repeatedly complained about you.

Don't be discouraged if the recommended method doesn't work. Contact technical support for assistance.

What is iDoT?

This abbreviation stands for “Instagram Degree of Trust”. This is a system for assessing the authenticity of pages on a social network. Measurements are carried out on a 10-point scale.

Who is more likely to get a high iDoT score? These are profiles that:

• Created more than 12 months ago;
• Have more than 100,000 followers;
• Have more than 5 comments under all posts in the feed;
• Are among those that other Instagrammers have not complained about;
• Do not distribute spam;
• Not using auto-posting applications;
• Have an increase of no more than 100 followers over the last 24 hours.

When a profile is blocked, it has a zero iDoT. The trust level, varying from 1 to 3, is the page that has been shadowbanned. These pages still have a chance for “correction” and a “second life”. But if this doesn’t happen, you don’t have to think about how to get rid of ShadowBan.

For what reasons does iDoT decrease:

1. Excessive use of programs for mass following and liking;
2. Using different IPs when logging into Instagram;
3. Authorization in a social network from a “gray” IP.

To be active on Instagram and not worry about system limitations, you must follow the above rules. Good luck!

Instagram is waging a targeted struggle for the quality of content and user activity, and we all feel it: thousands of subscriptions and likes without restrictions are a thing of the past, now any suspicious activity can result in a ban.

Shadow ban will make your account invisible to users who do not follow you: search system, hashtags and geotags will not display your photos.
Account blocking - more serious sanctions that can last from several hours to lifelong blocking and account deletion.

What are they punished for on Instagram? Let's crash

Safe mass following is based on limits that must be observed; current data about them is below, and changes are best tracked in the official help from Instagram on this page.

Action	Account (up to 6 months)	Account (after 6 months)
comments	30/hour (int. 350-400 sec)	60/hour (int. 350-400 sec)
likes	30/hour (int. 36-48 sec)	60/hour (int. 28-36 sec)
subscribe/unsubscribe	30/hour (int. 36-48 sec)	60/hour (int. 28-38 sec)

Please note that subscription and unsubscribe actions are cumulative!

But, alas, the story does not end there... Sometimes even exceeding the limits does not lead to a ban or warning, or vice versa: the account has not crossed the boundaries of what is permitted - but has already received restrictions. Why does this happen?

It is assumed that in addition to the official limits, Instagram also takes into account:

Account age and number of subscribers
Young accounts and pages with a small number of subscribers (up to 5,000 thousand) are more vulnerable. Try not to exceed the limits, even at one time.

Nature of previous activity
Any activity should begin and increase gradually, if you have started working with the InstaFlow application recently - in the first few days do not use the limits completely, gradually increasing your activity.

Previous warnings and sanctions
Account blocking usually occurs after warnings, so after receiving restrictions or warnings, give your account a break for at least a day, after which you begin to gradually increase activity.

Frequent change of IP or device
Try not to register a large number of accounts from one device and IP address - such pages have a bad reputation and great vulnerability from the very beginning. For the same reasons, we do not recommend buying already promoted accounts - without knowing the history of the account (circumstances of creation, sanctions received in the past), you risk quickly getting banned.

Irrelevant and redundant use of tags
Suspicious activity with hashtags may not lead to a ban, but it can make the account invisible to other users (shadow ban). Try not to use template blocks of tags and comments, use only relevant low-frequency hashtags, adding tags in the text and directly below it.

How to get out of the ban?

The best action in this case is inaction:

• stop any activity for 48 hours;
• temporarily ban third party applications access to your account;
• remove hashtags from old posts and all irrelevant tags;
• switch the account type to “personal”.

If even after a decrease in activity Instagram does not want to rehabilitate you, write to the support service; conscientious users have every chance of having the ban lifted.

Hello!.

In addition to the fact that I have this blog, I have also been actively promoting my Instagram account for the second year now.

In total, I attracted more than 200,000 subscribers and I managed to learn something about the ranking algorithm of Instagram itself.

I also often heard about the so-called “shadow ban”. And here's what I think about it:

Shadowbanning on Instagram is a myth. There is only 1 ban - blocking for violating the rules. Everything else is ranking algorithms.

What does “shadowban” mean on Instagram and how to check it

Let's define what is meant by the term “shadow ban”. This expression is usually used by bloggers whose user activity has decreased and the reach of their posts has fallen.

User activity- these are likes, comments, adding an entry to bookmarks.

Coverage– this is the percentage of subscribers who saw the blogger’s post.

This phenomenon exists on Instagram, but still it is not some kind of “shadow ban”, but a certain algorithm that depends on many factors.

It is impossible to check whether any sanctions were applied to you or not. This algorithm can only be felt on your account.

If suddenly your reach has decreased and your activity has dropped, it means you did something wrong. Let's try to figure out what the problem might be.

What NOT to do to avoid being shadowbanned

First, re-read the Instagram rules very carefully again. Try to do this at least once every few months.

Secondly, never break these rules. It is for violations that ranking algorithms are used.

Avoid Giveaway Contests

Giveaway is a quick set of motivated subscribers who subscribe to an account not because they are interested in it, but because they do it for the sake of a “free” prize.

How it works. The organizer gathers a group of sponsoring bloggers of 20–30 people. As a rule, all participants represent completely different niches.

Participation in such a giveaway can cost 60,000 rubles. 60 thousand rubles. multiply by 30 participants and get an amount of 1,800,000 rubles.

You probably already know and have seen what happens next. “Star” releases a video on its Instagram in which it colorfully tells what wonderful prizes in the form of iPhones, cars, travel packages you will receive if you perform one simple action - just subscribe to all the participants in this competition and just wait for the draw.

Crowds of freebie lovers begin to subscribe to all bloggers, without even delving into who they are and what they do.

Participants in this competition begin to enjoy the exponential growth of new subscribers. One such motivated subscriber can cost only 1 – 2 rubles.

It seems that everyone should be happy, but no, in the end only the stars who made money by deceiving their audience and the organizer who organized it all remain happy.

After a while, both subscribers and giveaway participants begin to suffer. And this is very interconnected.

This is where this mythical “shadowban” of Instagram appears.

The Power of the News Feed Algorithm

Now let's imagine our poor subscriber who has subscribed to 40 previously unknown bloggers.

He logs into his Instagram feed and is bombarded with messages from people he sees for the first time in his life.

And each of these bloggers is trying to impose something on him: be it just a photo or a text with “smart” thoughts, etc.

What reaction will such a subscriber have?

His first thought will be “Who are all these people?” and he begins to scroll through all the messages until he gets to a post from his friends or acquaintances.

And several tens of thousands more of the same subscribers will do the same!

This is where the first problems with coverage and activity begin.

The Instagram algorithm begins to “see” that your posts have suddenly become of no interest to anyone, because they are not watched, liked or discussed.

Accordingly, filters are applied to you (shadow ban), and from that moment on it gets worse and worse in terms of activity.

After some time, subscribers begin to realize that they were cheated with prizes and they begin to unsubscribe from the blogger en masse.

This is another signal for the Instagram algorithm. He “sees” that in addition to the fact that posts are not read, people also unsubscribe en masse, which means your content is of very low quality, although in fact it may be the best, but the algorithms focus primarily on people’s behavior!

The problems do not end there, but only intensify.

Especially damaging are those subscribers who not only unsubscribe, but also massively complain about the blogger, marking all his publications as spam.

As a result, you get such a “shadow ban” that the only thing worse than a real account ban.

Consequences from giveaway

Ultimately, your account is under a filter. After some time, 70–80% of motivated subscribers will unsubscribe from you.

Whether or not to participate in such competitions is up to you to decide. First of all, you must understand for yourself what you need from Instagram.

Are there many subscribers with low involvement or subscribers who will really be interested in you and who will be with you “through thick and thin”?

A simple example, pay attention to accounts that have a million subscribers, but get a maximum of 20,000 likes or views do not exceed 100,000. Most likely, these accounts participated in similar competitions and there are not a million real loyal subscribers there!

Shadowban by hashtags

The next thing you can be “punished” for is the abuse of hashtags. There is no need to put hashtags that have nothing to do with the post.

Also there should not be too many of them. No need to make a sheet out of them. You can also easily get a “shadow ban” for this.

Other reasons for an Instagram account to fall under filters

Do not use other people's content without indicating the original source. For some reason, we consider it normal to take someone else’s photo or video and publish it as if nothing had happened.

Firstly, algorithms are excellent at distinguishing unique content from non-unique content.

Never use photos or videos that violate laws. You can read all the rules on the Instagram website.

How long does it last and how to get out of a shadowban on Instagram

Everything that I described above is what I encountered in my practice. It took me more than 4 months for all my indicators to return to normal.

People don't unsubscribe all at once, they do it gradually over several months.

And only when the increase in new subscribers is higher than the number of unsubscribers, the situation will begin to change.

In addition, you need to constantly work to improve the quality of your content.

It is imperative to involve subscribers in the discussion, perhaps even make some provocative posts.

Instagram's algorithm takes everything into account! Likes, comments, bookmarks. Make stories, start actively working with subscribers and you will be happy!

Conclusion

So, we figured out that the “shadow ban” is a myth that is not in the description or in the Instagram rules. There are complex algorithms that depend on many factors.

As soon as you want to deceive, cheat, manipulate, you will immediately receive one of these filters.

Instagram will not allow you to gain subscribers using such “workaround” methods as Giveaways! This is not economically beneficial for him. The entire social network system is designed so that you spend as much money as possible on promotion.

Always work honestly and hard and you will never have such problems.

I hope my article was useful to you and you learned some lessons for yourself. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments below, I will definitely answer them.