If Instagram detects that someone has broken their guidelines, they might show a message that says “We restrict certain activities to protect our community” or “action blocked“.
Sometimes, Instagram may limit certain actions on accounts, like following or commenting, in order to prevent spam and keep the community safe. When users don’t follow the rules of the social network, this is what can happen. If the system wrongly identifies something as a positive result, you have the option to appeal.
Why was I blocked by Instagram?
If an account has been blocked, it should see the message “action blocked” or the more detailed text:
Please try again later: We restrict certain activities to protect our community.
Instagram’s Community Standards aim to ensure an open and welcoming platform for everyone and, when incorrect or abusive use of any resource or service is identified (even if it was not on purpose), there will be a temporary blocking of it, normally lasting from a few hours to a few days.
Other actions that can also result in temporary blocking are:
- Keep switching account types: Switching from public to private account multiple times can create a poor experience for users. “This behavior is discouraged on Instagram to help protect the community from inauthentic activity, Instagram explains.
- Hate speech: making threats, offensive comments and other disrespectful behavior that violates community standards and, in addition to being removed, may result in the blocking of actions on the network;
- Third-party apps: using apps to get some advantage on Instagram, such as getting likes, followers, seeing who visits the profile or knowing who blocked the account, are discouraged. According to Instagram: “Accounts that generate inauthentic activity also violate Instagram’s Community Guidelines”;
- Copyright: The rules also talk about copyrighted content. “Posting someone else’s content on Instagram or facilitating access to it illegally is considered a copyright violation on Instagram”, describes the platform;
- False information: Instagram is also against misinformation or misleading content that may harm users.
What to do if Instagram restricted my account?
To fix the issue of a temporarily blocked Instagram account, it’s important to figure out why it happened in the first place. This could involve checking if any copyrighted material was used or if any frowned-upon applications were used on the account.
Copyright infringement
If you want to make sure that a post doesn’t violate copyright and Instagram guidelines, follow these steps:
- To access your settings and privacy options, first go to your profile and click on the icon with three horizontal bars. This will open up a menu where you can select “Settings and privacy“.
- To find help with your account status, simply scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “Help” option. From there, select “Account Status.”
- This section will indicate whether there are any publications that are causing harm to the account. To solve the problem, you need to remove the content.
You Used Bots or Third-party Apps
If you use apps other than Instagram to get more followers, your Instagram account may face some restrictions. If you decide to use any of these apps to boost your likes or followers, your account may be disabled or terminated.
We cannot guarantee that removing third-party apps will instantly recover your account. It’s possible that the block will continue for a few days until Instagram recognizes that the user is following the rules again.
Update the app
Instagram itself recommends updating the app if there are any malfunctions. If the version installed on the cell phone is outdated, there may be some incompatibility with the app’s latest technologies.
Nothing worked: report to Instagram
Sometimes the impossibility of following someone is not related to the blocked account, but to a technical problem with Instagram. The solution is to report the error in the application:
- If you encounter an error while trying to follow someone, you can shake your phone to bring up the “Something happened” window. From there, you can tap on “Report problem“.
- Please click on the option that says “Add and continue” on the following screen.
- Please provide an explanation of what is happening with the account. If you have additional screenshots, please include them in the report. Once you have completed the report, tap the “Send” button located in the upper right corner.
