Instagram is the second most popular social media platform in the world after Facebook. It hosts over a billion users worldwide.
So, why do people love Instagram?
People love Instagram because it offers a plethora of amazing features through its application to help content creators, businesses, and the public to share their photos and market their content and products.
You have the option to share stories, create IGTV content, post carousel images, tag & mention people and more.
But as fun as Instagram is, one mustn’t take it for granted.
This is because Instagram has a set of community and platform rules everyone needs to follow.
What happens when you break these rules?
Well, there are many scenarios depending upon the rule you’re breaking. The worst that can happen is getting your account banned and your IP address blocked by Instagram.
In this article, we’ll discuss the rules and restrictions that Instagram has instituted to protect its community.
Instagram Has Updated Its Ban Policy by Pre-Ban Warning
Instagram updated its ban policy in July 2019. This brought a positive shift to the way things used to be.
So, what is this positive shift?
Before July 2019, users suffered a lot because Instagram used to ban users without prior notice. There were users who complained that they were sure they didn’t violate any rules, and still got banned.
Think about it. You create an account and grow it with constant effort, only to get banned by Instagram out of the blue.
Would it make sense to you?
Of course not, because this would suck.
But it changed after Instagram changed its ban policy. Now, you’ll receive a notice from them before they block or ban you from using their platform.
What is the prior notice that Instagram sends?
You can get banned by Instagram if only your actions violate a certain percentage of their guidelines.
If you make such a mistake, then Instagram will send you a pre-ban notice.
In this notice, they’ll clearly specify the actions that led to this notice. They will warn that you’re on the verge of getting banned if you continue with your actions. You’ll also get suggestions from them to prevent the ban.
Why did Instagram do this change?
A simple answer to this question is that they want to protect the community.
They did this to make Instagram a safe platform for everyone, including teenagers.
Now, teenagers are always finding ways to have fun.
They are vulnerable and go to any extent to make their point.
Instagram, if used properly, is an excellent platform to enjoy, but if used carelessly can become a toxic platform for teenagers.
Hence, this updated policy makes sure that your children aren’t using Instagram to post restricted content. They’ll have time to correct their actions before getting banned from the platform.
Instagram states: “We limit how often you can do certain things on Instagram to protect the community.”
One funny aspect of this rule is that you get the pre-ban notice when Instagram notices unusual behaviour.
Hence, now you know that if you break the rules, you’ll get blocked from liking, commenting, following, unfollowing, sending direct messages, and posting content.
But you needn’t worry because if you follow their suggestions they’ll remove the ban within a few weeks.
What Is the Forbidden Content on Instagram?
Let’s now see what is the content that Instagram has forbidden its users from posting. This’ll help you get an idea of what to post on the platform.
You mustn’t engage in the following content in any way:
- Gambling on Instagram.
- Harass someone or blackmail them for something.
- Deal in selling and purchasing firearms.
- Deal in selling and purchasing alcohol, tobacco, and illegal prescription drugs.
- Pornography and sexual content.
- Content encouraging violence, vandalism, threats of physical and financial harm.
- Sell animals.
- Hate speech and content encouraging people to self-injure.
You must remember this list because Instagram is super strict about this. If you post content promoting any point from this list, they’ll ban you from the platform.
Now, you can get a pre-ban notice before getting banned, but it’s good to stay within the boundaries.
If you are posting content promoting drug sales and sexual solicitation, Instagram might ban you immediately without a prior notice.
What Should You Do if Someone Violates Instagram Rules?
Who surveys content on Instagram and reports them?
Well, this is a significant question because you might ask, even if I post something that violates their rules, how is Instagram going to find it among millions of posts?
This Is where users come in.
Now, Instagram has set in place the rules because they feel certain content violates people’s privacy and creates an uncomfortable environment.
Hence, if you post content that violates the rules, users can report it to Instagram.
But this doesn’t mean users can report any content on the platform.
What if you get reported because someone wants to trouble you?
Instagram knows this, and hence, asks users the reasons why they have reported the content.
A team analyses the reasons and the content.
If they find the reasons as valid, they’ll remove the content immediately and send the user who posted the content a warning.
Instagram Introduces New Weight Loss and Cosmetic Surgery Ad Restrictions
Instagram isn’t just a platform that focuses on making money. It genuinely cares about its users.
Hence, it has instituted certain Ad restrictions that otherwise might affect sensitive topics like weight loss and mental health.
You might have noticed, back in the day, the news feed used to get filled with advertisements promoting weight loss products. Now, this doesn’t happen because of Instagram’s new weight loss Ad restrictions.
You can’t expect teenagers to process these products.
They might get influenced by such advertisements and form immature opinions.
Hence, with these new guidelines in place, advertisements promoting weight loss products will get shown to users who are above 18 years.
This is the reason Instagram asks you to specify your age when signing up on their platform.
They take this data to categorise users, which helps them to decide what content what users should come across.
All Instagram Limitations
Let’s discuss all the Instagram’s like, comment, tag, follow/unfollow restrictions.
Why is this important?
Instagram monitors people who violate platform rules.
But there’s another aspect to this.
Instagram hates bots.
Many users use automation to grow their audience.
This’s a quick method to grow followers and interaction on Instagram.
But you must use this method carefully or never use it because if Instagram finds you use a certain automation bot to drive growth, they can block/ ban you without even sending a prior notice.
How does Instagram detect this?
Well, bots interact with accounts rapidly on a large scale.
They execute robotic actions.
Hence, create suspicions about the account that uses the bot.
For instance, if you follow 500 accounts in an hour. This action will attract Instagram to look into your account.
Hence, it’s crucial to know what is the limit of likes, comments, follows/unfollows, tags you can execute in a day.
Now, Instagram doesn’t specify this limit, but many users have experienced bans/blocks.
Another exception is accounts with higher engagement rate get excused. These are large businesses and influencers with millions of followers.
Instagram Follow/Unfollow Limit
So, what is the limit on follow/unfollow on Instagram. This is the data, users around the world have calculated from their experience. The daily limit is 200 a day. But there is no limit on how many people can follow you on the platform.
The pace of the action also affects the way Instagram assesses your behaviour. If you follow 50 people in 2 minutes. This’ll raise suspicion among other users and Instagram.
Hence, an excellent practice is to start slowly, then escalate the number of people you follow.
You can start with 10 follow/unfollow per day, then increase to 15/20 the next day.
Instagram Likes Limit
You can like a 1000 posts a day. This means if you like over 1000 posts a day and that too at a great pace. You might get blocked by Instagram.
Hence, keep your action under a 1000 likes per day. This’ll keep you safe from raising suspicions.
Instagram Caption/Comment Character Limit
The limit for caption/comment characters is 180 per user.
Now, there are many scenarios where commenting can appear as spam.
If you repeat commenting the same thing for some time, Instagram will consider this as a bot activity.
You also need to make sure you are commenting like an actual person. You can’t just expect to comment on a set of emojis again and again and get away with it.
Instagram Direct Messages Limit
You can go with 50–80 direct conservations per day. Another interesting aspect of Instagram limit is that you have a total limit of 500 actions per day for a new user.
This means you can divide this number and assign a part of it to a particular action.
Instagram Hashtag Limit
Hashtags help categorise content on Instagram.
They are one of the most effective tools to find your ideal audience.
You can find top-performing hashtags in your niche by searching for them on Instagram.
You can even analyse the posts of your competitors to find highly converting hashtags.
Instagram has put a limit of 30 hashtags per post. This means if you use over 30 hashtags in a post, Instagram will only consider the first 30.
Instagram Igtv Limit
IGTV changed the way people used Instagram. You can share interviews, long videos, and more using the IGTV feature. The possibilities are endless.
But there’s a limit that allows you to post IGTV of 10 minutes long. But then, there are users who can post hour long videos.
Instagram Story Limit
Stories are a quick way of posting content on Instagram. They disappear after 24 hours of posting and help share bits of your day to keep your audience excited.
You can add up to 100 stories.
Instagram Story Highlight Limit
You can save story highlights to save stories as a part of your profile. There is no limit on story highlights.
Instagram Tag Limit
The maximum number of people you can tag is 20. If you tag over 20 accounts, Instagram will ignore them.
Instagram Mention Limit
Mentions are great for telling people you are thinking about them. You can mention 10 people/accounts per post on Instagram.
Instagram Account Name Character Limit
Account name is a critical part of your profile. But there’s a limit to the number of characters you can use. Your account can have up to 30 characters on Instagram.
Number of Instagram Bio Characters Limit
Instagram doesn’t allow you to use over 150 characters in your Instagram bio. Hence, you have 150 characters to write a catching bio for your followers.
Instagram Daily Post’s Limitation Limit
The good news is you can post a lot of content on your feed. This’s great because Instagram doesn’t limit you from sharing your content through regular posts. You can use this as an opportunity to drive your content strategy.
Sharing Photos and Video Limit
Instagram is full of eye-catching posts. Hence, it’s natural your attention falls on something that you might want to use in your content.
Now, you can take inspiration from that post to create a unique one. But what you can’t do is copy that post exactly and post it as your own. You also can’t post nudes on the platform.
How to Get Around Instagram’s Limits?
In this section, we’ll discuss how you can get around Instagram’s limits with a few tricks.
This is because you can never become serious enough to consider all the limitations every time you interact with your audience.
Get around Instagram’s limits by using an Instagram automation tool
You can use an Instagram automation tool to get around the limits. Now, Instagram hates bots. But there are many excellent bots that do the job without getting you banned.
Seek Socially is an automation tool that can handle multiple Instagram handles and offers full-automation services like scheduling posts, managing comments, auto-direct messages, etc.
Seek Socially also knows the limitations set up by Instagram. Hence, you can use it to get around them.
Why Should You Use Seek Socially?
What makes Seek Socially special is that it knows all the ins and outs of the limitations set by Instagram.
This means whatever actions this tool executes, it will respect the limitations.
Hence, if you can drive your Instagram growth without violating the limitations, why not use the tool?
Seek Socially offers a plethora of useful features, like the ability to handle multiple accounts, choose targets based on hashtag, location, and followers.
Seek Socially handles multiple Instagram accounts
People use more than one account to drive their content strategy on Instagram. Say you use three accounts.
Now, these three accounts will post distinct content and target a unique set of audiences.
Managing all three accounts isn’t simple. You need to make sure you are giving equal importance to each of them.
This Is where you can Seek Socially.
This automation tool handles multiple Instagram accounts.
You can use Seek Socially to send auto-direct messages, comments, and schedule posts.
Is it safe to do actions on Instagram manually while using an Instagram bot?
The straightforward answer is no.
This is because if you are using Seek Socially to interact with accounts on Instagram, you can’t interact manually.
For instance, if Seek Socially is commenting or liking a post from one account at a time, but you are commenting from another account. This’ll raise red flags with Instagram.
Hence, never interact manually when the automation is active. You can turn it off only then interact manually.
Conclusion
There you have it. Now, you know the rules and restrictions that Instagram has instituted to protect its community. You need to follow these limitations to stay safe from getting banned by Instagram.
You might use an automation tool like Seek Socially to handle multiple accounts. Finally, remember never to interact with content while the automation is active.
