If you’ve been on Instagram at all during the past few months, you’ve likely seen the term “Instagram jail” (or “instajail”) being thrown around. Perhaps you’ve seen apologetic stories from people who haven’t posted or even liked or commented on posts in a week because Instagram temporarily banned them from performing such actions. In many cases, people are being “jailed” by Instagram for liking too many posts or following too many people in what Instagram has deemed a too-short span of time. So in essence…Instagram, a social media site, is punishing people for being social.
Of course, Instagram is quick to defend their actions. They claim that this is the last resort, a measure that they must take to crack down on the number of spam accounts as well as legitimate users who are using automation services to like and comment on other people’s posts. As someone with a public Instagram account, I am no stranger to spam followers and appreciate that Instagram acknowledges that it is a problem. However, I have doubts that their strategy of jailing people who like or follow at too fast a pace is effective because I have seen no decrease in the amount of spam activity on my account in the months since they’ve started doing this. I wonder if it’s because actual spam accounts are flying under the radar since Instagram seems to be targeting accounts with real people behind them…just saying.
My gripes about Instagram’s ineffective spam-control methods aside, banning people (even temporarily) from liking, commenting, or posting is hypocritical. Instagram brands itself as a social network, a place where people can keep in touch with friends as well as forge new connections. On Instagram, that connection happens through likes and comments, so if people can’t like or comment, they can’t be social. And, in my opinion, liking and commenting on posts that resonate with you and forging relationships with people who share your interests is Instagram at its best. When you take that away, you get Instagram at its worst: a numbers game. And this is all in an attempt to curtail “inauthentic” engagement!
Not to mention, being banned from posting (or being able to post but not being able to caption them) is annoying. I get mad when my internet connection shorts out and my photo “failed to post”, I can’t imagine not being able to post at all. I also work with several companies as an influencer, so not being able to post for a period of time could seriously mess up my relationship with those companies. And as much as I think influencing full-time is ridiculous, does Instagram really need to compromise their income?
Surely I’m not the only one that thinks that Instagram putting people in jail is ridiculous, but sadly we don’t have much control over it.