I have been observing a series of events on my account that led me to believe that IG might be running daily check and compile a list of accounts that use automation and remove some of the follows gained on the next day. I have never bought any followers or likes.
I started noticed small chunks of followers disappear from minute to minute on a weekly basis back a few months ago. Recently this was happening on a daily basis and I started monitoring it closely. Here are the findings:
On 6/13 9:30am PST I lost 50 followers at once, prior to that I noticed periodical 20-30 loss each time, usually at 8 or 9pm PST, about once a week or so.
On 6/14 9:30am PST 30 followers lost at once
On 6/15 9:25am PST 20 followers lost at once
On 6/16 9:23am PST 20 followers lost at once
On 6/17 9:24am PST 20 followers lost at once
I stopped automation completely on the night of 6/16 so 6/17 a clean 24h period
On 6/18 I did not lose follower in chunk during the same hour
It leads me to the conclusion that the check is done on the past 24h period and list of targeted accounts were compiled then. it might also be cleaning out of bot accounts on the platform in general at the same hour daily but then there are two holes in this hypothesis: Why is it always round number? How come it stopped exactly when I quit all automation (well this might still change so I’ll report back as it goes)?
I know it sounds crazy as even if I got those followers by automation at the end was a the followers choice to follow. So how can IG decide on users’ behalf? That’s why I was in the believe that IG was banning bot accounts until this morning that I saw nothing happened around the same time, which coincide with when I totally stopped automation. I guess we’ll learn more in the coming days.
UPDATE:
on 6/19 around 9:30am PST I lost 50 followers. Still no API call but did some manual likes the day before.
On 6/20 I did not lose follower in chunk during the same hour. I did 0 like the day before, automated or manual
On 6/21 I did not lose follower in chunk during the same hour. I did 0 like the day before, automated or manual
On 6/22 I did not lose follower in chunk during the same hour. I did 0 like the day before, automated or manual
Around 4:30pm I noticed I lost 15-20 followers within short amount of time (not sure whether it was at once or not as I didn’t observe that closely at this unexpected time)
Before you come to this conclusion, I would recommend identifying which followers you are losing, by scraping your followers on a daily basis, and seeing which have unfollowed. See if there are any common factors in those accounts.
We’re you unfollowing during the period that you were losing followers?
Jarvee has a free trial, which you could use to scrape the followers list of your account for a week. If you aren’t doing f/uf, whose actions do you think Instagram is automatically removing… the bots that are following you?
I really don’t think that instagram is doing that. Even if you got those followers by automation at the end was a the followers choice to follow you. Hence, why instagram should choose who am I following?
The only logical reason I could think is that those followers are not real but fake accounts and instagram is simply banning them or that those followers are genuinly not interested in your page anymore.
Even if you got those followers by automation at the end was a the followers choice to follow you. Hence, why instagram should choose who am I following?
Yes that’s what puzzles me as well! I was also mostly thinking it was IG banning bot accounts until this morning that I saw nothing happened around the same time, which coincide with when I totally stopped automation. I guess we’ll learn more in the coming days.
No, people unfollow after some time when they realize you unfollowed them. Imagine some Joe thinking - hey this guy followed me I like his pics so I’ll follow him back. Next day, instagram removes his follow - doesn’t make any sense. They will never do something like this. Either people unfollow you or instagram removes bots or really old inactive accounts (they do a clean up every few months).
those are probably bots (following and then unfollowing)
maybe some accs get disabeled
anyways, i would compile two lists of all followers + another list of followers (after some were removed) to extract which ones were removed and then analyze.
i don’t think it has something to do with automation (on your side)
Instagram has been cleaning up its user base for some time now. Some people buy followers or have bought in the past. Sometimes people use third party applications such as unfollow apps. When you share that info, other users who purchase followers will then have your account followed. So now instagram is probably detecting that, and having your account unfollow that person. But with this, this is all through the instagram API, so people using jarvee are not going to be affected by actions performed through it. Thats how i see it, because all my clients are still increasing in followers. The only clients who are decreasing are people who have bought in the past, and I know that they have bought.
Thanks for sharing this! I´m worried about it. Instagram is punishing automation usage with several methods, one is shadowbanning. I´m seeing this same behavior on 10 accounts I´m monitoring. Exactly like you said. I don´t think they are bots. Also they don´t show you as a suggested account so is really hard to get new followers after using automation.