Instagram Account shadowbanned

Hello! I just found mpsocial and I already love it!
I am an Instagram user, I have a fan account on instagram that recently hit 4400 followers. I never violated Instagram policies, but I had a quick growth because I started posting more/using appealing captions that stimulate comments and I often reach 1k likes per post with a big amount of comments.
From yesterday all my old posts are shadowed, I search them through the hashtag I used and I can’t see them anymore (but they appeared before). So I guess my account is fully ghosted for whatever reason. I reposted the problem to Instagram, removed the hashtags from my recent posts, how long should I wait? I’ve read that some people got shadowbanned for months

The Instagram Team in June had a meeting with the media.
Among the many things discussed, they wanted to debunk some myths, conspiracy theories, etc.

They clearly said there is no shadowban, ghosting, limited exposure, etc. not from posting too many hashtags, not for following too many people, not for any action made on their platform.

If you don’t want to believe them you are free to do so of course.

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Then how is it possible that my posts don’t show up in the hashtags list? I don’t know what could have happened because it’s not a big account, I follow 199 other accounts but it hadn’t changed in months. I make only one post a day, never spammed etc
Is there a way to fix it?

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Instagram delivers content on hashtags based on preference. You sure you werent checking featured and not recent?

I checked both, and even my old posts (from week ago) disappeared. I used non-popolar hashtags and I can’t see them anymore

Yeah they claimed that they do not shadowban but it doesn’t explain issues that people like OP are facing… so there’s still no clarity, unfortunately.

@Littleddove If your content is fine, you might have mistakenly used a banned hashtag. “How is that possible, I use only normal, safe hashtags” you ask? Well, stuff like #books and #desk is also banned!
(Check it out: Open https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/books/ on desktop and scroll to the bottom)

So only old posts are missing? The newer posts are still visible? Are your new posts still getting good engagement? Try using a unique hashtag (like #sdkjfsdfiisrg0948ksjdhf09) on your posts. If your posts are getting good engagement and are appearing under this hashtag, then there’s nothing to worry about.

If you’re using a banned hashtag by mistake, then this should solve it. You can check if you’ve used banned hashtags at https://bannedhashtags.com/app

I didn’t post for a couple of days, then yesterday I posted an edit to check it the shadowban was still on, in the caption I also asked people how they found my post. The 4 hashtags I used didn’t work, but people who don’t follow me liked the post and some commented that it was in the explore page (which I could confirm because I saw it too). This is really confusing, thank you so much for your help!
I don’t think I used banned hashtags, I admit I use the same 30 hashtags over and over, but they were all connected to the show my account is about (characters’ name, places etc).
I can’t check the engagement because I switched from a business to a personal account, the post got 847 likes in 14 hours, which is more than I expected because of the shadowban but it’s less than what my posts usually get (probably because I couldn’t use the hashtags).
So is it possible that the hashtags don’t work but the post made it to the explore page?
Also I didn’t gain any followers, which is also weird because I usually gain at least 10-15 with a new post
Thank you!

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Thinking of conspiracy:
Why would they ban you from appearing in the hashtags and not from the explore? It would be very stupid.
Moreover, if they lie about that, then they could be lying about anything and there’s no point in reading anything they say. Like 60 max follows per hour. Maybe it is 30 the real limit and after that they put a mark on you. Maybe you can use just 10 hashtags and if you use 30 like they say you are a spammer. We can speculate and think of conspiracies from the ones that are easier to follow and believe, to the most unbelievable ones. But if we assume they don’t tell the truth, then we can believe nothing.

I’m not an IT guy, but I read once a theory that stated that it is basically an hardware/software issue. Too many users, too many uploads, not good enough infrastructure and sometime the data is f**ked up and we miss posts etc. is this the real reason? I don’t even know if it makes sense, so I don’t know.
1-2 times a year my iPhone screen gets black and I see it restarting on its own. Is it the CIA? Or the NSA? Are they Russian Hackers? Or is it an hardware/software issue I don’t understand? I choose to believe the latter, to me it makes more sense. Other people like to think they are listening.

So…

Things you can try:
check what you already checked with a different account. Ask a friend to use their phone, IP and account and check if with that you can see your posts under the hashtags used.
Check if any of the hashtags used is now banned or semi-banned.

A decreased engagement and/or lack of follows is usually our own fault.
Was the pic good enough? Was the caption good enough? Did I post it at the right time? Did my followers engage as they usually do?
The algorithm is not something easy to understand or even explainable. There surely are thousands of variables. And without a business account you can’t even know how many people find you through an hashtags or what your reach is, so you can just assume something, without actually knowing it.
You might think you have an issue because you received only 10% of the usual engagement. But what if your post made it to the timeline of just 10% of your usual reach? What if this happened because the quality of your posts is decreasing so they decrease your reach.

Are you doing F/UF?
What if you are following the wrong users. They are not interested in your posts. So you upload a pic, it is shown to them and they don’t like it. IG will know that and will assume that people that should be interested in your account are not liking your pic, thus is low quality. So why pushing it to more accounts?

I could go on and speculate with a dozen more reasons and so could other users here.
My advice is to stop thinking it’s their fault. Think about yourself and way to improve yourself.
Maybe you should choose who to follow with more care. Maybe you need higher quality pictures and captions. Maybe you need to post more pics in a day, maybe less. Maybe you should post at a different time of the day. Maybe your followers are just not interested anymore that much on the same topic and you should find a way to spice things up for them.

So don’t give up, keep trying, you might find a way to restore what was lost.

That’s pretty bizarre. As I said, try to use a super unique hashtag (just random numbers and letters, so that your post should be the ONLY post there) and see if you’re appearing under that. If you are then there’s no issue, and the algorithm is just not showing your post under the other hashtags in favour of other profile posts. Everything else like engagement, followers, etc can be explained easily then.

If your post is not appearing on a hashtag that has only 1 post, then you might have a problem.

I just tried, it doesn’t work. I used a unique hashtag and when I click on it my post doesn’t show… I really don’t understand what it might be.

I never F/UF. I get followers only from my posts, I have been following the same 199 accounts for months. I’m not worried only about followers, as you said I tried to check my hashtags with a different IP and using an account that never followed me and my posts dont appear, still, they make it to the explore page and I keep getting likes from people who don’t follow me.
I never said it was a conspiracy, I just don’t understand what’s going on with my account and I want to fix this problem because it has been 3 days :frowning_face:
My last post has 953 like which I guess it’s good, but I can’t use hashtags anymore

If you don’t mind me knowing the name of your account, I could check from here and see if I can find your posts under the hashtags you use.
Also if you stop posting, the reach decreases immediately from what I saw on my end. You said you stopped posting and that might contribute to your downward spiral.

decreased engagement and follows --> you stop posting hoping it will fix the issue --> even less engagement and follows due to decreased reach.

It’s @leviinwinterfell
I’m going to make a post right now with some unique hashtag
I stopped posting because I’ve read that when you get shadowbanned (which I don’t even know anymore if it exists/it’s my case) you better keep a low profile for one week and stop posting and commenting

I can’t see your posts under those two hashtags.

But I’ve seen that new hashtags, never ever used, might need time or traction before they start to show pics. This happened to my “brand hashtags”. The first pictures after creation weren’t showing.

Try editing the post, removing those hashtags and adding this one, which although unrelated has at least some images listed already.
#winterfellcardigan

Then send me a PM or quote me here so I get a notification of reply on my phone and will check right away otherwise I’ll forget.

Let’s see if it will appear there.

edit:

try also to put a location. Again not a popular one where your post will be immediately submerged by new ones, and see if we can find it by looking at that too.

There is most definitely something wrong with the account - and I feel it’s a glitch, rather than an actual ban / shadowban.

As soon as you used the hashtag, it got banned/restricted. I’m doing a few experiments from my side and I’ll let you know how it goes, but I can see it’s one of two things:

  1. Genuine glitch by Instagram - They messed up and will fix your account when you reach out.
  2. You got reported for copyright (other people’s content, posting AoT screenies, etc) and the banning glitched so you’re able to reach explore page somehow.

If you haven’t ever got a warning from Instagram before, then #2 seems very highly unlikely (especially since there are millions of fan accounts like yours - and much bigger ones too)

If the steps suggested by Rick don’t work, I would be reasonably confident that Insta messed up with your account and you should contact them to get it fixed. Would suggest you replace your bio link with something harmless when you do that, just to be safe.

instagram.com/p/BnjVfNNHxdd/
This is my post. The location works but the hashtag doesn’t!
When I upload a picture that isn’t a manga panel I always add credits and ask the artist if I can post their works, so I don’t think they would report me for violating some copyright.
What is a glitch exactly? Is it like a bug?

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do me a favor, use one of your accounts and use a hashtag #cock, post it…then tell me it doesn’t exist.

Capture

you are not hashtag shadowed but in a throttled/capped state. This happens after every PV/EV, report or IG post deletion. Post as reguar as you do. depending on how many you have in the past…it could be 2 weeks of less.

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if you are using a spanking new hashtag, IG will put a hammer on that post and your account until ‘deemed’ safe or okay. Is it a new hashtag?

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3 reasons, PORN/CHILD PORN, HATE SPEECH, ABUSE. if somebody had a hashtag ‘bigcock’ and lovelittle girls, do you think that should be allowed? dude, its real…