I got shadowbanned by Instagram for 2 months due to a 'lighter' joke

I’ve always heard the term “shadowbanned” when it comes to Instagram-related matters. In the past, I have seen some accounts of young activist acquaintances, hate speech organisations, or even the accounts of pornstars or sex workers being shadowbanned and later even taken down if their content bordered towards sensationalism, misinformation, or nudity.

While it seems reasonable for Instagram to take down potentially dangerous content such as the anti-vaxx misinformation during the Covid pandemic or any content that borders at Andrew Tate-level misogyny/homophobia, Instagram has a strange way of identifying harmful content and taking it down. 

Tomorrow, the statue of David can be taken down for nudity. The same can be said for the photo of a semi-naked person (for instance, many end up mass-reporting or flagging such photos themselves for nudity reasons). 

February 2: Day of the Shadowban

I finally got my own taste of shadowbanning on Instagram this February. The reason? Promoting suicide and self-injury. 

Before anyone raises any eyebrows, don’t worry. I neither conveyed any suicidal ideation nor did I share any “dank” memes on suicide. I personally can’t stomach suicide jokes myself. 

But the “Instagram police” took action based on what it saw. On the evening of February 2, 2023, I chanced upon an upload by a ‘desi’ meme page that used the “Moe Noose” template from The Simpsons. 

There are two meme templates that have sprung out of the Simpsons character Moe’s suicidal urges. One meme finds him looking at the noose and saying “Not today, old friend”, a subtle reference to Shawshank Redemption (that had a similarly aged character hanging himself in quite a shocking manner). The other is Moe actually wearing the noose but having a disappointed expression as the suicide attempt fails. 

Anyway, the meme that popped up on my Instagram feed featured the second template (Moe hanging from the rope) with the caption that roughly read like, “Every panwaadi’s lighter”. 

I cannot find the meme anymore but just visualise it. I myself am not a smoker but the sight of a plastic lighter hanging by a thin thread is a common sight whenever I pass a cigarette stand by (or a panwaadi ki dukaan as Hindi speakers would call it). Given my broken sense of humour on Instagram, this meme was comedic gold and I was sure that many on my feed would relate to it. And so, I did post it on my story. 

A few seconds later... the Insta “cops” took down the story and slammed a notification that read, “Your story goes against our guidelines on suicide or self-injury.” 

I was sent a few more notifications that informed me that even though my account is public, my uploads will not pop up randomly in others’ feed or Reels section. Another term of punishment for my offence was that I cannot be invited as a collaborator on anyone’s Insta posts.

After the shadowban

All that I am thankful for is that I am not a professional Instagram content creator with a million followers. Otherwise, I would have had a panic attack or two right away. Anyway, the first rational step I thought to follow was to call up or text Instagram’s helpline. 

And that’s when I got enlightened to the fact that Instagram doesn’t really have a helpline number or email address in the first place!

Going down a rabbit hole of FAQs that left me only more confused, I finally came across an option through which I can dispute the claim.

So, yes, I was foolish enough to tell Instagram (or whatever AI machinery is flagging its content) that “Hey, you made a mistake. I was making a joke on sutta shops not suicide”.

Anyway, Instagram doubled down on its response, sending back a middle finger in the form of a notification with larger letters reading “Avoid losing access to your account in the future”. 

I was naturally scared. I have a meagre family of two thousand-something followers on Instagram (a large chunk of them being friends and acquaintances whom I have never met in real life and a good deal of spam bots). 

And I realised that if I continued arm-wrestling with Instagram, I might just lose my entire account. I have seen many other accounts get “Zucked” (the Gen-Z way of saying that you got f****d by Zuckerberg) to tell me that I shouldn’t dabble in any more risk-taking activities.

On Reddit groups, I read many accounts of people getting Zucked for the strangest reasons. One person’s Facebook account got temporarily disabled because he used the word “Snapchat” in a post and that went against Facebook’s community guidelines for some reason. 

As a recently shadowbanned Instagram user, I felt like I could relate to these Redditors venting out their frustration at Instagram and its parent company Facebook. It almost felt like how movies depict a recovering alcoholic finding solace in an Alcoholics’ Anonymous meeting. And right then, I saw a man rant about why Instagram is “sexist” for taking down one of his posts on “meninism”. That’s when I realised I was too quick to empathise and this is not my clique!

Epilogue: Free at last

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into a month. I realised that there was nothing I could do to change my Instagram. Anyway, I used my account mostly for promoting my written work and my bizarrely senseless humour (just a fancy way of referring to “shitposting”). So, it’s not that my shadowbanning would lead to anyone missing my content (except my Day One followers, whoever they might be).

Anyway, two months later, the Insta cops let me go and I am finally un-shadowbanned. You can invite me as a collaborator and find my posts on your feed (hopefully).

I would still like to think I am on Instagram’s hitlist. Tomorrow, if I accidentally post anything that remotely violates their Guidelines, my account might just vanish for all I know. Thank you Instagram for giving back my account privileges and for making me paranoid!

Guess, I will just reach a point of paranoia when I will delete my account altogether and enjoy a permanent social detox. But I know that day is not today. Today, I will crib about my First World problem that no-one asked for and…

(As per Instagram guidelines, this article will be removed by Instagram, as the line “I will delete my account altogether and enjoy a permanent social detox sounds like @dalai_thapa is implying s…)

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