How to Get Unbanned on Instagram

Written by Tijana Kargovska Social Media / Instagram

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Instagram has been updating its user policies and has been getting more and more strict. This is probably a result of a big number of users reporting experiencing issues with mental health as a result of the everyday bullying and norms placed by society in everyday life on Instagram.

For younger generations, Instagram has become a major part of the daily normal, but this brings a lot of other issues. What bullies in school used to be in the past years, are now on social media, so a lot of hate comments can be found below victims’ posts and photos.

This has caused Instagram to step up as a company, and make changes in its user policies, in order to protect users who have experienced hateful comments and bullying in the app.

However, at times all these policies can label you as a banned account without you really breaking any of their guidelines.

If your Instagram account got banned for some reason, and you’re not entirely sure why, we will give you a list of a few possible reasons, and a few possible fixes to the problem.

Why was my Instagram banned?

There are a dozen reasons why Instagram disabled your account. Your account might be temporarily banned, or it might have gotten a permanent ban.

  1. Using third-party apps

Using a third-party app to follow/unfollow other users, or liking and commenting on other users’ posts. This probably labeled your account as a spam bot, which caused Instagram to ban your account from the platform.

  1. Selling or buying Instagram profiles

if you bought an account with a fair number of followers, or sold one, this also might have triggered Instagram to ban your account. This is due to Instagram’s Community Guidelines, which prevent taking such actions.

  1. Buying fake followers or likes

This also causes a violation of Instagram’s Community Guidelines and User Policies, so if you’ve taken such an action, that might have been the reason why your account got suspended.

  1. Making duplicate profiles

Making duplicate profiles is another violation of Instagram’s policies, which might have caused your Instagram to get banned.

  1. Posting content that might be considered inappropriate

There are some guidelines as to which type of content is considered acceptable. Make sure to read through Instagram’s policies and Terms of Use to be positive you haven't violated any of them.

  1. Age restrictions

Instagram does not allow users to be a part of the platform unless they are above the age of 13.

  1. Reselling, distributing or promoting illegal products

If your account contained illegal products, this would be a serious problem that would cause your account to get banned.

  1. Being violent, aggressive and offensive

Commenting in a hateful way would surely trigger Instagram to take down your account.

Instagram’s banning process does not mean your account has been permanently deleted as soon as you receive the news of getting a penalty. Your account will be labeled as suspended - these suspensions usually last between 1 and 48 hours. If you feel like the suspension was not rightful, you can place a complaint to Instagram Support Center, so Instagram takes it down faster.

Instagram Community Guidelines

Types of bans on Instagram

Instagram has 3 different types of bans:

  1. Blocked action - this ban occurs due to constantly following/unfollowing users, and liking content repeatedly. A user’s actions are limited to a bit above 150 actions per day, so going overboard might have caused your account to get banned.
  2. Shadowban - this ban occurs when an account uses forbidden/banned tags, or posts too much during the day repeatedly. You will still be able to use your Instagram profile, but you won’t get promoted on the Discover page, nor will your posts show up when looking into hashtags.
  3. Ban - if you repeat the actions that got you suspended in the first place, you will ultimately get banned - this time for good. You won’t be allowed to use the IP address you used to, the username, or email address.

Learn what it means when it says 'Instagram User' in DMs.

How to get unbanned from Instagram

Unfortunately, there are not too many actions that can be done to get unbanned from Instagram. One of them would be placing a complaint - contact Instagram, and list the reasons you think your account has been wrongfully suspended/banned.

There is a big number of users whose accounts have gotten back to normal in no time after placing complaints about their bans.

Waiting for the ban to pass - since some of the bans do not last too long, you can be patient and wait for those 1 to 48 hours to pass, and you’ll get back to your account and keep using it, just make sure not to make the same mistakes that got you banned in the first place, since that might result in permanent deletion of your account.

A permanent ban - in case your account got permanently banned, you’ll need to contact Customer Support to address the issue. However, not many users have gotten their accounts back after receiving a permanent ban from Instagram.

Also read: What does shadowbanned mean on TikTok? And how to avoid it.