How to remove Instagram Shadowban in 2023? The Complete Guide

Dismissing Instagram shadowban is crucial to restoring your account, and your business. Getting an Instagram ghost ban means losing a content promotion, making it lose reach & engagement, and reducing your brand visibility. Here is a guide on how to remove Instagram shadowban (if you are affected) to recover your account & bring back profits for your business.

Is your content reach declining more & more severely these days?

Does the same thing also happen to your engagement?

Here is the thing: you might be shadowbanned by Instagram.

If so, then it’s bad news for you.

First, your content will not appear on Explore Page and users’ feed timelines.

Second, you will miss lots of reach & engagement and your content doesn’t perform well as expected.

The overall damage is that you lose your brand visibility.

It’s critical since it doesn’t bring you any benefit to your business.

Here is the tutorial to discard Instagram shadowban to bring your account (and business) back to track.

Let’s dive in.

8 steps to remove a shadowban on Instagram in 2023

There is no smoke without fire.

There must be reasons why an account gets hell banned by Instagram.

Be honest with yourself, you already have an idea about the “How”

See this list and check if your Instagram profile does one of the following shadowban causes:

• You act like a bot: follow, like, comment, and send DMs too much
• You use bad automation that makes Instagram algorithm think you are a bot
• You put banned hashtags on your Instagram post
• You violate Instagram Rules / Guidelines

If you happen to do one of those activities, no worries.

Here are the steps to escape the Instagram ghost ban.

Bare with us as it needs 8 steps to make sure your account is cleared from the hell ban.

Let’s start.

1. Disconnect suspicious third-party apps from your Instagram account

Having questionable third-party apps on your account can be malicious.

They might steal your personal information,

Or worst hack your account and post spam or harmful content.

Remove it now and don’t risk your account any longer.

To disconnect any third-party apps, go to the hamburger menu and tap “Settings”.

After that, pick “Security” and select “Apps and websites” under the “Data and history menu”.

See the apps in the “Active” tab,

showing which ones have been connected to your account and actively doing some activities.

Then, click “Remove” on the apps you want to delete the access.

If you get this notice:

“Are you sure you want to revoke this app’s access?” Click Yes.

2. Stop using bad automation or any cheating method that can bother Instagram’s algorithm

This is 2023 and Instagram has evolved so much with the algorithm.

One of the tips to beat the Instagram algorithm is by respecting Instagram rules.

In this case, you must not use a shitty automaton.

Which can possibly send a bad signal to the algorithm, thinking that you are a bot.

Some bots can help your account, but they often work aggressively.

In case you need more secure choices, here are the Instagram bots safe to use.

Also, avoid getting involved in engagement pods,

Or those cheating methods to grow your Instagram page.

It’s highly risky, plus you can get detected easily for manipulating your Instagram growth.

You won’t get any brand deal for real.

3. Remove any Instagram-banned hashtags from your post

Knowing which hashtag is prohibited by Instagram is very important.

Once you input the wrong hashtags, you’re done.

It’s an obvious reason to get stealth banned, at least you can avoid this before publishing your content.

Check out this list of banned hashtags by Instagram.

Take note of each hashtag and never use them on any of your Instagram posts.

For some reasons, plenty of hashtags are not allowed to use.

So be careful with this one.

4. Check if you use irrelevant hashtags on your Instagram post

Be creative with your hashtag usage.

Don’t use generic ones like #happy #love, but try to get more specific, especially in your niche.

Irrelevant & repetitive hashtags might bring you to a ghost ban from Instagram.

Pro tip: mix popular + specific hashtags.

If you still struggle with your hashtag strategy,

try using one of these best hashtag tools to help generate hashtag inspiration for your content.

Some experts says that hashtags are less important than before.

Well, maybe.

But using more specifics is already a winning strategy.

5. Avoid too much following, liking, commenting and messaging on Instagram Direct Messages in a day

The Instagram algorithm is anti-bot, so don’t act like a “bot”.

Period.

Always grow your business on Instagram organically.

Don’t spam like & comments and limit how many messages you send on Direct Messages.

This is crucial because when done too much, Instagram might see you, again,

As a bot or a spam account.

If you want to succeed on the app, then follow what it tells you to do.

Respect the rules, or die.

Follow this guide and learn how to respond well to comments as a business.

And if you really need to automate some parts of your DM’s or comments you can use an Instagram Chatbot

It’s totally legit and they are all partnering directly with Instagram.

So you are safe.

6. Check if your account gets mass reported by the Instagram Community

If your account gets reported by many users, it’s done.

You can be subjected to comment ghosting, or worst, your account might be taken down for real.

Especially when Instagram limits the usage of its features.

To avoid this, just make sure, once again: to follow what has been determined by Instagram.

7. Contact Instagram Support Team

If you have done the previous steps and you feel you don’t do anything wrong,

Go to the “Help Center” menu and reach out to Instagram Support Page or Report a Problem.

Yes, the visual app does provide support requests from its users, just take note when writing the email.

Explain what’s not working on your account briefly, don’t mention a stealth ban in your message.

Since Instagram denies doing the stealth ban, it’s better to describe your problem objectively 

Based on what actually happened without accusing the provider.

8. Take a break from Instagram for a few days or a week

If everything doesn’t work out, take some rest from Instagram.

When Instagram has tagged your account as a bot or spam, and you add an aggressive movement,

Then you just prove their point.

So, don’t hesitate to log out of your account and let it be calm for a moment.

Many people experiencing this comment ghosting come back to Instagram after 2-7 days from a break.

Once you go back, do everything manually first, be natural in lifting your engagement.

Secret tip: taking off a few days from Instagram can actually help remove the hell ban quicker.

What is Instagram shadowban?

You have scrolled this far and you might be wondering what is exactly an Instagram hell ban.

Shadowban by Instagram is an act of restricting or blocking a user’s content from its followers’ view & suggested pages without the user’s knowledge.

What are the consequences of getting ghost banned?

Your content reach, brand visibility, & engagement rate is declining altogether.

Basically, the hell ban can lead you to a growth regression.

The way the banning is subtle forces users to be aware of this situation.

The ghost ban is more complicated and affects badly for influencers.

Apparently, this ghost ban thing also happens on other social networks like TikTok.

Follow this guide to get rid of shadowban on TikTok.

While many are concerned about this issue, the photo-sharing app never confirms the action.

Later, this raises a question…

Is Instagram shadowban still a real thing in 2023?

Instagram is trying to explain to users why their posts are shadowbanned.

Well, at least they try.

And they give now some extra tools to check if your posts are recommended to non-followers.

Account Status Update is supposed to help you to know if you are shadowban.

✅ Account Status Update ✅

We're expanding Account Status so professional accounts can understand if their content may be eligible to be recommended to non-followers.

Here’s how to get to it: Profile -> Menu -> Settings -> Account -> Account Status pic.twitter.com/QbxjQF06vR

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) December 7, 2022

It’s true that Instagram refuses to stealth ban some accounts.

Check out this Instagram statement.

We understand users have experienced issues with our hashtag search that caused posts to not be surfaced. We are…

Posted by Instagram for Business on Tuesday, February 28, 2017

They might deny it, but the effects are real.

In fact, it is a big problem for tech companies that leads users to lose faith.

The term “shadowban” might not match Instagram’s point of view.

But yes, Instagram does reduce the reach of borderline content.

The ones that seem problematic or inappropriate for users but don’t actually violate Instagram’s rules.

Borderline content Instagram contains:

• Content depicting violence
• Graphic or shocking content
• Sexually suggestive content
• Posts with misinformation

When Instagram restricts your borderline content, you won’t get any notifications about it.

This becomes more concerning as users don’t know whether their bad performance is caused

By poor Instagram content strategy or a ghost ban from Instagram.

Check these tips to know if your account is on the banned Instagram radar or not.

4 Ways to quickly Check if you get shadowbanned by Instagram

Even if the Instagram hell ban is vague,

There are still ways to check if your account gets affected by it.

The obvious indication of your account getting banned by Instagram is when your engagement drops so suddenly.

Here are the 4 best tips to know if you are on the Instagram block list.

1. Review your Instagram analytics and check your content performance

The first apparent thing to check is to examine your Instagram analytics.

If you notice any performance drop in a huge number,

It is a big sign your account gets into the Instagram ghost ban radar.

Proceed to the next tip to make sure it’s really because of the ghost ban.

2. Ask people you know to check your new post on the hashtag’s “Recent” posts

Next trick: check if other people can see your posts.

Because you can still see your own post, even when you get stealth banned.

Go make a new post along with the right and relevant hashtags.

Then, ask a person you know or your follower to check one of the hashtags used.

Click the hashtag to go to the hashtag page, and select “Recent”.

If your post appears on the page, then you are safe.

If not, you might get stealth banned for real.

3. Check your Instagram account status

Now, to make everything gets into the light, inspect your account status.

Go to hamburger menu → “Settings” → “Account” → “Account Status”.

Or simply type & search “Account Status”.

You will find your track record of any violation you did on your account here.

If it’s clean, you never do anything wrong and obey the Instagram Community Guidelines,

It will display like this.

However, the list won’t be the same if you ever get a warning notice from Instagram.

It means you have done some faults on the visual app.

Here are some conditions affecting your Instagram status account:

• Your account uses copyrighted material, like music, etc.
• Your content was taken down once
• You post a topic that violates the Instagram Community Guidelines

If there is one notice appearing on your account status,

It is possibly getting ghost banned.

4. Use a tool to test Instagram shadowban automatically 

Now for the alternative, use an automatic checker.

There is a lot of Instagram stealth ban tester for a quick account-checking result.

It is a website platform that can tell automatically if you are hell banned or not by Instagram.

But they often generate inaccurate results, so it’s better to check yourself.

My Final Take: Run Instagram safely and avoid getting on the Instagram shadowban radar

Instagram has built advanced technology so that any activity will be easily detected,

And a shadowban is one of its jobs.

Shadowban is real, even the photo-sharing social network never confirms it.

Many struggles when they are struck by it.

It seriously kills your growth, reach, and engagement, which is the most needed performance for a business to run.

The best way to avoid an Instagram shadowban is to do the following:

1. Do not connect your account with malicious third-party apps
2. Do not use bad automation
3. Avoid using banned hashtags
4. Put relevant hashtags and don’t use the same ones over and over again
5. Stay original, don’t like, comment, & DM like crazy
6. Always follow Instagram Rules

Basically, just never mess with the Instagram algorithm, and don’t cross the line.

Or else, you will be penalized severely which impacts badly to your business.

Remember, growing a business on Instagram is not easy.

But, as long as you’re consistent with your organic strategy, you will be there someday, trust me.

Never risk your business for a cheap trick.

So, are you one of those who were affected by the stealth ban?

Tell us your experience and how it impacts your business, we might get a new perspective from a real case 🙂

Note: Contribute your thoughts and contact us here if you think we miss something to talk about.

More Questions on Removing IG Shadowban?