Recently this question came up in one of my workshops so I thought I’d write a blog post about it.

First, you may be wondering, What is Shadowbanning? Hubspot defines it in this way:

Shadowbanning is the act of blocking a user's content on social media sites, in such a way that the user doesn't know it's happening. If you're shadowbanned on Instagram, your content won't appear on anyone's feed unless they already follow you.

While Instagram doesn’t officially acknowledge that it does shadowban, it would make sense that it has to do some “policing” from time to time. Here are some of actions that could get you “shadowbanned” on Instagram:

Using automated bots or “growth tools” to increase your Instagram following
An unusually high volume of activity in a short time raises a red flag since Instagram has limitations on how many accounts you can follow, unfollow, like, comment, or post within an hour or day. I’ve seen this happen first hand with clients who have paid services that promise to grow their Instagram following. As a result, their accounts were frozen and they were unable to comment on or like the posts of other accounts.
Why you shouldn’t use paid services/tools to increase your followers
Besides running the risk of get shadowbanned, the quality of your new ‘followers” is likely questionable i.e. bots, or fake Instagram accounts. Why is this a bad thing?
When Instagram cracks down these account your follower count will be affected. Also if you have a bunch of fake followers who don’t have the characteristics of your target audience or true fans, and you do paid advertising on Instagram, you won’t be able to your content delivered to the right audience since Instagram will try to deliver the ad to accounts similar to the ones already following you.
If you manually post, comment, engage or follow too quickly or at high volume
Again, this has to do with Instagram’s constraints on an account’s level of activity per hour or day. For example, if you are following 80-100 accounts per hour this signals possible bot activity to Instagram.
Using broken or banned hashtags
Hashtags that have become spammed with inappropriate content may be banned. Beware of using banned hashtags or ones that don’t work, they would get your account blocked.
How can you check to see if a hashtag is banned or blocked?
Search for a hashtag on Instagram, if you see the message “no hashtag found” the hashtag had been banned. If the hashtag appears in the search click on it to make sure whether or not it has been banned. For example #beautyblogger appears in the search but if you click on it you will see this message: “Recent posts from #beautyblogger are currently hidden because the community has reported some content that may not meet Instagram’s community guidelines.”
You account or content has been repeatedly reported
When this happens Instagram may determine that your account is posting inappropriate content or violating their terms of service.

How can you tell if you are shadowbanned?

Create a new post on Instagram using hashtags that you normally use, but don’t use highly popular ones (i.e. ones that have millions of posts associated with it)
Find someone on Instagram who doesn’t follow your Instagram account
Ask the person who doesn’t follow you on Instagram to search for the hashtags you used in your post. If your post does not show up in a search of the hashtag, you have been shadowbanned.

What should you do if you are shadowbanned?

If you are using an automated bot or service to increase your followers, stop using them immediately
Don’t use broken or banned hashtags
Make sure that you are following Instagram’s community guidelines so that your content doesn’t get reported. This includes avoiding spammy activity like randomly tagging people in your posts or comments, making unwanted solicitations or offers to increase Instagram followers, leaving spammy comments like “ we should connect”, playing follow/unfollow games, or other annoying behaviors.
Take a 2-3 day break from Instagram to let the system reset. During that time avoid posting, commenting, and even logging-into the app
Report your shadowban to Instagram by going into Settings ==> Help