Instagram Has Banned Hashtags To Avoid In 2024

Hashtags on Instagram are an incredibly powerful strategy for getting business and can be an important part of your marketing plan. Hashtags allow you to connect with your followers, find new ones, and join the conversation.

However, Instagram has been demoting certain hashtags that they deem inappropriate, fake news, or spam. Accounts that use these banned hashtags are often flagged as bots and can be suspended, locked, or shadow blocked. Whether you choose hashtags manually or use a hashtag generator, avoiding banned hashtags is important to increase your views and engagement.

Read on to understand what shadow banning is or skip to the list of banned hashtags.

What is Instagram Shadowbanning?

The dreaded shadow ban, also known as a ghost ban or private ban, is when your post, photo, or video share is no longer shown to Instagram users who don’t follow you. Your content is silently blocked or suppressed on social media without your knowledge. Unlike direct bans, you remain anonymous, as you can continue to post normally but be less visible to the outside world. It is very tricky!

Usually, you don’t have anything to show that the reputation is restricted without a significant drop in the promise. It can hurt business, revenue, and fan growth.

The Atlantic recently published an article that provides some examples of shadow blocking on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Why Instagram Shadowban?

Instagram has many reasons for blocking shadow accounts. If the account does not comply with the rules of Instagram, such as posting inappropriate content, buying followers, or using inappropriate hashtags, Instagram may stop showing its content to other users.

Some of the reasons Instagram may ban your account are:

• Using a bot to send spam content.
• Your account has been reported multiple times by other users.
• Engaging in suspicious behavior such as following and unfollowing people too quickly.
• Using banned hashtags…see below.

Sometimes, but not always, Instagram will warn users if they violate policies. If this happens, stop posting that type of content, hashtag, etc. immediately.

Banned hashtags are tagged by Instagram or the community.

• Dirty hashtags are against Instagram’s community guidelines.
• Hashtags that bots or spammers use in SPAM.

While some hashtags are permanently banned, such as #WTF, #Eggplant, or #ILoveMyInstagram, others are added or removed from the banned list as spammers change their tactics.

What Happens If You Use a Banned Hashtag?

If you’ve used a banned Instagram hashtag for one, such as #happythanksgiving, it’s likely that the post will have low or no engagement and won’t be shown to your audience unless they go to your feed. Your overall account will not be affected.

However, if you use too many banned hashtags regularly, Instagram may flag your account and shadowban or delete your account. So the best policy is to avoid using hashtags that Instagram doesn’t like.

What to do if you are Shadowbanned on Instagram?

If you feel that your account has been banned by reputation and you are wondering “am I banned by reputation on Instagram?”, First, do not be afraid! Next, post on Instagram with a rarely used hashtag and have someone using a different Instagram account search for that hashtag. If you don’t climb, you may be blocked by the shadow.

Unfortunately there is no Instagram person or email to contact to fix your account. I The best solution is to stop the spam behavior abovelike banned hashtags or bots, and wait two days before posting again. Hopefully after that time Instagram will restore your account and your engagement will return.

Instagram unfortunately does not publish a list of banned hashtags, so we need to research which ones are on the banned list…and the list of banned hashtags is always changing. For example, #kanas was banned because it violated Instagram policies.

Here’s a very current list of hashtags to avoid – some words may be offensive, but that’s why they’re banned. We have compiled this list from several sources.

For your convenience, the complete list of banned Meta hashtags is presented as a program. Feel free to copy in your code:

[
  "#abdl",
  "#addmysc",
  "#adulting",
  "#alone",
  "#always",
  "#armparty",
  "#asiangirl",
  "#ass",
  "#assday",
  "#assworship",
  "#attractive",
  "#beautyblogger",
  "#besties",
  "#beyonce",
  "#bikinibody",
  "#boho",
  "#boobs",
  "#boobsbabe",
  "#brain",
  "#costumes",
  "#curvygirls",
  "#date",
  "#dating",
  "#desk",
  "#direct",
  "#dogsofinstagram",
  "#dm",
  "#edm",
  "#eggplant",
  "#elevator",
  "#fuck",
  "#followforfollow",
  "#girlsonly",
  "#gloves",
  "#graffitiigers",
  "#happythanksgiving",
  "#hardworkpaysoff",
  "#hawks",
  "#hotweather",
  "#humpday",
  "#hustler",
  "#ice",
  "#ilovemyinstagram",
  "#instababy",
  "#instasport",
  "#iphonegraphy",
  "#italiano",
  "#kansas",
  "#kickoff",
  "#killingit",
  "#kissing",
  "#lean",
  "#leaves",
  "#loseweight",
  "#lulu",
  "#master",
  "#mileycyrus",
  "#milf",
  "#mirrorphoto",
  "#models",
  "#mustfollow",
  "#nasty",
  "#newyearsday",
  "#nude",
  "#nudism",
  "#nudity",
  "#overnight",
  "#orderweedonline",
  "#parties",
  "#petite",
  "#pornfood",
  "#prettygirl",
  "#pushups",
  "#rate",
  "#ravens",
  "#saltwater",
  "#samelove",
  "#selfharm",
  "#sexy",
  "#single",
  "#singlelife",
  "#skateboarding",
  "#skype",
  "#snap",
  "#snapchat",
  "#snowstorm",
  "#sopretty",
  "#stranger",
  "#streetphoto",
  "#sunbathing",
  "#swole",
  "#shower",
  "#shit",
  "#tag4like",
  "#tagsforlikes",
  "#tanlines",
  "#thighs",
  "#todayimwearing",
  "#teens",
  "#teen",
  "#thought",
  "#undies",
  "#valentinesday",
  "#workflow",
  "#wtf",
  "#xanax",
  "youngmodel"
];

As more banned hashtags are known, we will add them.

Last updated on February 12, 2024.

A great way to automatically filter banned Instagram hashtags is to post through Ayrshare’s API. We have built a post verification system that checks every post before posting on social media. This helps you stay on good networks and follow their guidelines. We check for things like duplicate posts, too much talking, image content, and banned hashtags.

Find out more about Ayrshare’s Social Posting API.

You can also use our Banned Hashtag Checker API and Instagram Hashtag Checker Tool to check if an Instagram hashtag is banned.

Ayrshare also offers API endpoints to help you automatically generate social media hashtags or find recommended TikTok hashtags. Check them out if you have a platform, CRM, or SaaS and need to create social media posts.