A list of Instagram Banned Hashtags to avoid using in 2021.

Hashtags on Instagram are an incredibly powerful business discovery strategy and can be a key part of your marketing plan. Hashtags allow you to communicate with your follows and be discovered by new ones.

However, Instagram has been cracking down certain hashtags they deem insensitive, fake news, or spamming. Accounts using these Banned Hashtags are often flagged as bots and can be suspended, locked, or shadow banned.

What is Instagram Shadowbanning?

The dreaded shadowbanning is when your post, image, or video shares are no longer showed to Instagram users who don’t follow you. Often, you have no indication you’ve been shadowbanned except for a sharp drop in engagement. It can be devastating to business, revenue, and follower growth.

Why Does Instagram Shadowban?

Instagram has many reasons for shadowbanning accounts. If an account doesn’t comply with Instagram’s rules, such as posting inappropriate content, buying followers, or using hashtags that aren’t relevant, Instagram might stop showing their content to other users.

Other reasons Instagram might shadowban your account is:

• Using a bot to post spammy content.
• Your account has been frequently reported 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 are violating policies. If this happens, stop posting that type of content, hashtag, etc. immediately.

What to Do If You’re Shadowbanned on Instagram?

If you feel your account has been shadowbanned, first, don’t panic! Next, post on Instagram with an infrequently used hashtag and have someone using a different Instagram account do a search for that hashtag. If you’re don’t come up, you might be shadowbanned.

Unfortunately there is no person or Instagram email to contact to fix your account. The best solution is stop the above spammy behavior, such as banned hashtags or bots, and wait two days before posting again. Hopefully after that time Instagram will reinstate your account and your engagement will increase.

List of Instagram Hashtags to Avoid in 2021 (Updated)

Instagram unfortunately doesn’t publish a list of the banned hashtags, so we need to research which ones are currently on the banned list…and the list of banned hashtags continually changes. For example, #kanas was banned because it violated Instagram’s policies.

Here is the most current list of hashtags to avoid – some words might be offensive, but that is why they are banned. We compiled this list from several sources.

For your convenience, the complete list of banned Instagram hashtags is presented as an array. Feel free to copy it into your code:

[
      '#abdl',             '#addmysc',         '#adulting',
      '#alone',            '#always',          '#armparty',
      '#asiangirl',        '#ass',             '#assday',
      '#assworship',       '#beautyblogger',   '#besties',
      '#bikinibody',       '#boho',            '#brain',
      '#costumes',         '#curvygirls',      '#date',
      '#dating',           '#desk',            '#direct',
      '#dm',               '#edm',             '#eggplant',
      '#elevator',         '#fuck',            '#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 become known, we’ll add them.

Last updated September 13, 2021.

Automatically Filter Out Banned Hashtags

A great way to automatically filter out banned Instagram hashtags is by posting via Ayrshare’s API. We have built a post verification system that checks all posts before sending to the social networks. This helps you stay in the networks’ good graces and follow their guidelines. We check for things such as duplicate posts, too many mentions, image content, and of course banned hashtags.

Find out more about Ayrshare’s Social Posting API.

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