Instagram is the go-to social media platform for many brands, content creators and entrepreneurs. But one of the quickest ways to sabotage your success is this: failing to understand or follow Instagram’s Community Guidelines.
These guidelines are designed to foster a safe, inclusive and spam-free environment on Instagram. By following these guidelines, you’re showing the algorithm that you’re committed to keeping the platform a respectful place and boosting the chances of your content and account gaining organic visibility.
Want to reduce the chance of your content being deleted or your account being disabled? Here is your complete guide to the Instagram Community Guidelines, with five must-know tips for sticking to these rules and regulations.
What are the Instagram Community Guidelines?
Instagram’s Guidelines is a curated set of principles designed to keep the platform safe, respectful and free from spam. Upon sign-up, every account holder must agree to Instagram’s Terms of Use and these Community Guidelines.
Violating these Instagram Community Guidelines puts your account in danger of being restricted or disabled, with a high chance of your content being taken down or deprioritized in the algorithm.
These are seven key principles that users must follow to abide by the Instagram Guidelines, including:
- Only sharing content that you’ve created or have the right to share: This is all about sharing authentic content that doesn’t infringe on someone else’s intellectual property rights.
- Sharing content that is appropriate for a diverse audience: Instagram doesn’t allow nudity on its platform unless it’s in the form of art (like paintings or sculptures).
- Prioritize meaningful, genuine connections: Help to keep Instagram spam-free by not buying likes, followers or engagements. Plus, impersonating others is strictly prohibited.
- Always follow the law: Never support or praise terrorism, organized crime or hate groups. Plus, never use Instagram to offer sexual services, buy or sell firearms or encourage the sale of non-medical drugs.
- Respect others in the Instagram community: Hate speech, along with serious threats of harm to others, is not allowed on Instagram.
- Foster a supportive environment and never glorify self-harm: This includes all kinds of self-injury, including promoting or glorifying eating disorders.
- Be mindful when sharing newsworthy events: This is specifically linked to the sharing of graphic imagery and videos, as Instagram will remove any content showing graphic violence.
How to check if you’ve violated Instagram’s guidelines
Have you heard of a thing called ‘Account Status’? This is a tool from Instagram that allows you to review if your account has been blocked or flagged for violating Instagram’s Community Guidelines.
To review your Instagram Account Status:
1. Open the Instagram app and head to your profile
2. Tap the three horizontal lines and navigate to ‘Settings and Privacy’
3. Scroll down and select ‘Account Status’
This screen will show you a summary of any content that has been removed and if your content is or isn’t available for recommendation (such as being displayed in places such as Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels or Feed recommendations).
5 tips to avoid violating the Instagram Community Guidelines
Creating content that meets Instagram’s Community Guidelines is key to ensuring your content has the best changing of being recommended to users who don’t already follow you. In fact, the team at Instagram have consulted with over 50 experts to develop their Community Guidelines and ranking factors that are used to determine how content is recommended to users.
To give your account the best chance of succeeding organically on Instagram, follow these five practical tips to avoid violating Instagram’s Community Guidelines.
1. Be aware of Instagram’s Daily Limits (and stick to them)
Did you know there are limits in place for how often you should like, comment and follow accounts on Instagram? Yep, this is known as ‘Daily Limits’ and is a tool used by Instagram to reduce the chance of bots and spam on the platform.
Here’s what you need to know: there are limits on how many times you can perform certain actions on Instagram. If you exceed these limits, your account is likely to be flagged for ‘spam’, which could cause the platform to disable your account for a period of time.
While no official numbers have been released from Instagram HQ about the exact daily limits, our tip is to always:
- Craft personalized messages and comments
- Never send the same DM to multiple accounts
- Only like, comment and follow accounts at the speed of a human (not a bot)
2. Always give credit where credit is due
Producing authentic, original content is always the best way to go on Instagram (and all social media platforms). But if you are going to work with another creator, it’s important to follow IP laws and give credit to the original creators.
There are a few ways to do this:
- Using the Instagram Collab feature to co-create content that posts to both of your feeds
- Adding an account tag to your post tagging the original creator
- Ensuring you explain the original source of this content in your post’s caption
The same goes for other placements, like Instagram Stories. Use text overlays and tag stickers to name and credit the original creator.
3. Avoid ‘clickbait’ style content
Instagram actively discourages and deprioritizes content that includes clickbait. This is because Instagram users don’t want to feel scammed or spammed on the platform as it detracts from their experience.
Our tip? Ensure you produce high-quality content that is:
- Free from too many broad, generic hashtags that have nothing to do with your post
- Using a carefully curated number of emojis that are authentic and on-brand
- Harnessing original imagery or video content that is high-quality and value-driven
Looking for a way to gain organic visibility without spamming your audience? Try Plann’s hashtag manager tool, giving you access to thousands of high-performing hashtags, handpicked by our team of marketers.
4. Never purchase followers or use bots to boost engagement
If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. This sentiment rings true for the use of bots on Instagram, a ‘quick fix’ tactic that can do more harm than good to your Instagram account.
Always avoid buying followers as well as engagements (such as likes and comments), as Instagram can spot these as inauthentic interactions.
Rather than spending your money on fake followers and no-value engagements, it’s worth investing in tools to support high-quality content creation. That way, you’re growing a real, authentic and engaged audience who will actually convert into paying customers.
5. Steer clear of sharing content about sensitive topics
Last but not least, never post content about topics that Instagram doesn’t endorse or allow on its platform. Content that depicts self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, violence or nudity (just to name a few) is flagged by Instagram as violating its Community Guidelines.
By avoiding these topics in your content planning, you can ensure you’re giving your content the best chance of being organically prioritized within the Instagram algorithm.
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