Instagrammers the world were melting down when we tried to log on yesterday and were shut down for about an hour – and it wasn’t just the site, the app was dead, too! The ‘Gram won’t say what caused it – but at least it was just an hour. And hey, we always have Snapchat in a crisis, right?
But there’s more to consider on the Instagram trip. Ever heard of “shadowbanning?” It’s when Instagram hides your posts from being seen within certain hashtag searches. So if you use hashtags to promote your posts, they may not be showing up in a search for that tag. The horror!
Some reasons your posts may be shadowbanned include using bots to gain followers, using too many of the same hashtag, or using a banned hashtag. What to do? There’s a website that allows you to search your username and find out which of your posts have been shadowbanned (Find it HERE).
Source: TechCrunch