IG and shadow banning/censoring

REK Knives

REK Knives

Moderator
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Messages
5,680
My view and comments have been way down lately and I've seen a lot of makers reporting this along with screenshots of Instagram telling them they have to remove posts or only their followers will see future content.

Just wondering how widespread this problem is and what people are doing about it?
 
Last edited:
there's a lot of butt hurt going around in ig these days
 
Lorien said:
there's a lot of butt hurt going around in ig these days
Click to expand...
So just to clarify, are you saying it's not accurate what's happening or rather that you are indifferent?
 
Nearly every maker on my Instagram list has posted the screenshot saying they have a soft-ban and their account can't be shown to followers. I'm guessing an algorithm change on Instagram's end caused a mass issue considering it happened to dozens of makers overnight. The couple people who have managed to reach Meta have said that Meta is aware of the issue. It seems to be dying down, so maybe it's been fixed.

This happens to me every couple of months of so. Either particular posts get flagged for having pictures of knives, or hashtags about knives. I just appeal it and it gets overturned within a day every time. The same is being reported with the most recent wave of bans.

That being said... My reach has greatly decreased since I received the first ban awhile back. My insights used to show a reach split of about 30% followers, and 70% non-followers. My content is almost exclusively shown only to my followers now. :(

If you didn't start an Instagram account several years ago, it's going to be pretty hard for a new maker to get started on the platform these days.

insta.JPG
 
REK Knives said:
So just to clarify, are you saying it's not accurate what's happening or rather that you are indifferent?
Click to expand...
oh, it's accurate all right, and not entirely unexpected. Check out 'section 230' for some background.
Yeah, I'm indifferent to it. Followers can see the posts which have been restricted from explore, etc. and to my way of thinking, as long as followers have access to our posts then everything is still moving.
I think in general, many people have become obsessed with view and follower counts. Feeling entitled to these free platforms that constantly feed us positive reinforcement and whatnot. I personally don't think it's healthy anyway.
We can still build our follower base by directing folks to our ig and fb accounts from places like Bladeforums, so it's not like the people having their accounts restricted to followers only are losing followers.
I am a little tired of people kvetching about social media. I know it really seems like we need it, can't live without it, but there's so much more to life than this stuff.
Not saying that you're doing that with this post. Just complaining about people complaining I guess.
 
Maybe with the isolation of knife makers from social media we'll see a return to print brochures??? :D:rolleyes:

Yeah, I know - NOT! :)
 
Lorien said:
oh, it's accurate all right, and not entirely unexpected. Check out 'section 230' for some background.
Yeah, I'm indifferent to it. Followers can see the posts which have been restricted from explore, etc. and to my way of thinking, as long as followers have access to our posts then everything is still moving.
I think in general, many people have become obsessed with view and follower counts. Feeling entitled to these free platforms that constantly feed us positive reinforcement and whatnot. I personally don't think it's healthy anyway.
We can still build our follower base by directing folks to our ig and fb accounts from places like Bladeforums, so it's not like the people having their accounts restricted to followers only are losing followers.
I am a little tired of people kvetching about social media. I know it really seems like we need it, can't live without it, but there's so much more to life than this stuff.
Not saying that you're doing that with this post. Just complaining about people complaining I guess.
Click to expand...

Followers can see the posts which have been restricted from explore, etc. and to my way of thinking, as long as followers have access to our posts then everything is still moving.
Click to expand...

Yes I see where you are coming from, but the goal of every knife maker who wants to grow/expand is to reach NEW customers. If we are just stuck with our regular followers then you will never grow.

I think in general, many people have become obsessed with view and follower counts. Feeling entitled to these free platforms that constantly feed us positive reinforcement and whatnot. I personally don't think it's healthy anyway.
Click to expand...

That is true and I generally agree that it's not healthy, especially to feed our ego. For me personally I could care less about followers or views EXCEPT for a few things...

1. It may help be an indicator as to whether you are on the right path for a design that potentially has a lot of demand
2. what I want is people to subscribe to my newsletter because they are the ones who are serious in following my work and this way I would have a direct line of communication to them. You could have a post that goes viral and has a million views because people think something you showed looks cool but not have a single sale.

We can still build our follower base by directing folks to our ig and fb accounts from places like Bladeforums, so it's not like the people having their accounts restricted to followers only are losing followers.
Click to expand...

That's the whole point though... you are indicating you want to build your customer base (as do I). Bladeforums shouldn't be the ONLY place we do that though, it's just one avenue of many. In the grand scheme of things the BFC isn't that large compared to the potential followers on social media. In other words, I would like to do the one (bladeforums) while also doing the other (other platforms) and not be censored/shadow banned while I share my work.

While having your account restricted may not mean you lose followers, it does mean you are losing potential followers.

I am a little tired of people kvetching about social media. I know it really seems like we need it, can't live without it, but there's so much more to life than this stuff.
Click to expand...

It may not be an issue for you or some other knife makers, but for me I've been doing this full time since 2015 and EVERYTHING I do is online. So building my customer base is important to me as I expand and continue to grow my business.
 
Lorien said:
oh, it's accurate all right, and not entirely unexpected. Check out 'section 230' for some background.
Yeah, I'm indifferent to it. Followers can see the posts which have been restricted from explore, etc. and to my way of thinking, as long as followers have access to our posts then everything is still moving.
I think in general, many people have become obsessed with view and follower counts. Feeling entitled to these free platforms that constantly feed us positive reinforcement and whatnot. I personally don't think it's healthy anyway.
We can still build our follower base by directing folks to our ig and fb accounts from places like Bladeforums, so it's not like the people having their accounts restricted to followers only are losing followers.
I am a little tired of people kvetching about social media. I know it really seems like we need it, can't live without it, but there's so much more to life than this stuff.
Not saying that you're doing that with this post. Just complaining about people complaining I guess.
Click to expand...

I think you’re missing the part of the ban that says “your account won’t be shown in places like search” though.

When the ban is in effect, you can’t direct people from BladeForums to your Instagram because you literally don’t show up in the search to non-followers. It’s like your account just doesn’t exist.

I wish I could just focus on sales on BladeForums, and my website…. But the fact of the matter is that Instagram is where a lot of my customers are, and accounts for about 80% of my sale volume.
 
Are Instagram doing it to all craftspeople trying to run a business for free on their platform or does it appear to be just knifemakers, my first thoughts were that they will soon be charging business rates or commission for use and I don't blame them really, I would.
 
Fixall said:
I think you’re missing the part of the ban that says “your account won’t be shown in places like search” though.

When the ban is in effect, you can’t direct people from BladeForums to your Instagram because you literally don’t show up in the search to non-followers. It’s like your account just doesn’t exist.

I wish I could just focus on sales on BladeForums, and my website…. But the fact of the matter is that Instagram is where a lot of my customers are, and accounts for about 80% of my sale volume.
Click to expand...
Yep, I just searched for REK Knives on IG and it doesn't find him. It did show a bunch of posts that others have made of his work. Some of those posts show his hashtag link so I was able to start following. All in all very frustrating.
 
Way-Barney said:
Are Instagram doing it to all craftspeople trying to run a business for free on their platform or does it appear to be just knifemakers, my first thoughts were that they will soon be charging business rates or commission for use and I don't blame them really, I would.
Click to expand...

The most recent wave was more or less focused on the knife community for some reason.

Instagram and Facebook already charges 5% to use their storefront.
 
Richard338 said:
Yep, I just searched for REK Knives on IG and it doesn't find him. It did show a bunch of posts that others have made of his work. Some of those posts show his hashtag link so I was able to start following. All in all very frustrating.
Click to expand...
Thanks for confirming that!
Stuart Davenport Knives said:
Leather workers, photographers, and other crafts people have also gotten this message. It's not just knife makers. My account is still up, but because I'm small potatatos, to quote Hyman Roth.
Click to expand...
Are those other craftsman posting knife related content though or posts completely unrelated to knives?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top