Crucial Instagram Rules You Should Know in 2023

How much do you know about Instagram rules? We get it; diving into those Meta regulations can seem dull. But if you’re a regular user or even have a professional account, you can’t ignore them.

 Knowing the rules is a must to avoid potential Instagram bans. Here, we’ve rounded up all the key Instagram rules and regulations you should keep an eye on. Let’s dive in!

The Key Elements That Impact Instagram Rules

Before walking through the rules on Instagram, let’s see the key elements of these limitations.

Instagram Account’s Age

Instagram has stricter rules for new accounts. Accounts that are at least 3 months old have more freedom to engage in various activities (Don’t panic! You don’t need to be as old as Kevin!)

The Number Of Followers

Having more followers makes Instagram view you as trustworthy, leading to fewer restrictions. But remember, these followers should be real and organic. 

Account Engagement And Activity

Instagram values how many followers you have and how engaged they are with your content. So, if your engagement is down, you might have to deal with more limitations on your account.

What Are Instagram Rules?

Instagram rules (Terms & Policies) are guidelines and restrictions set by the platform to ensure a safe environment. These rules cover a wide range of topics, including: 

• Instagram content rules
• Privacy policy 
• Terms of use
• Community Guidelines
• Instagram posting guidelines
• Copyright and intellectual property

Instagram content guidelines

One of the most important Instagram rules refers to the content you’re going to share in your posts, stories, or Reels. Let’s walk through Instagram’s terms and conditions on content. 

Copyright rules

You can only share the photos or videos taken by yourself and not the ones you’ve copied from others without their permission. Remember that copyright includes any visual, audio, and written work. If you find any violation regarding this, you can report it to Instagram contact support. 

Instagram nudity guidelines

Sharing nudity content, including photos or videos of sexual intercourse- is forbidden on Instagram, even if they are creative or artistic in nature. Thus, if you publish sexual or nude content, even with good intentions, Instagram will remove them immediately. 

Note: Images of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of art showing nudity are allowed. 

Other Instagram community standards on content

• Hate speech
• Threats to harm.
• Encourage violence against other genders, sexual orientations, religions, and races.
• Publishing personal information to blackmail or harass someone.
• Releasing false information.
• Sharing content to support terrorism, organized crimes, buying or selling drugs, trading animals, and online gambling. 

Instagram ad rules

If you’re using a professional account, you can start advertising on Instagram. Luckily, there are different ways, from boosting posts to using Meta Ads Manager.

No matter your choice, it’s essential to follow specific guidelines to promote your products or services.

Apart from the Instagram post guidelines we mentioned earlier, there are certain things you can’t promote:

1. Firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, paintball guns, BB guns, firearm silencers, suppressors, weapons like non-culinary knives, tasers, explosives, and fireworks.
2. Drugs and drug-related products, including illegal or recreational drugs.
3. Tobacco products, vaporizers, electronic cigarettes, or any other products that simulate smoking.
4. Adult products or services, except for family planning and contraception.
5. State lotteries.
6. Negative portrayal of voting or census participation in the United States and/or advising users not to vote or participate in a census.
7. Initial coin offerings, binary options, or contracts for different trading.

What are Instagram advertising standards?

Instagram rules also cover formats and sizes, especially for ads. Here’s what you need to keep in mind:

• Instagram Ad 20 Rule: Avoid covering more than 20% of your ad image in text. If you exceed this limit, Instagram might reject your ad or reduce its reach.

• Instagram Ad Sizes:

1. 1. 1. Landscape: 1200 x 628 pixels (Aspect Ratio: 1.9:1)
      2. Portrait: 1080 x 1350 pixels (Aspect Ratio: 4:5)
      3. Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels (Aspect Ratio: 1:1)

• Instagram Story: Images should be 1080 x 1920 pixels.

Instagram giveaway rules

Instagram giveaways and contests are great for increasing brand awareness and followers. Still, you must follow some rules to ensure you run legal ones. Here are all you need to follow to stay within Instagram rules and regulations on giveaways or contests:

• To avoid misunderstanding, you need to use the terms “giveaways” or “contest” clearly.
• Inform people about the brand or company hosting the giveaway or contest. 
• Give clear instructions to enter the giveaways (the entry should be free).
• Give people the exact time of starting and ending the giveaway.
• Make it clear that Instagram does not sponsor your giveaway.
• Include any restrictions to participate in your giveaway, like age or location restrictions
• Give details on announcing the winners, like when and how you will choose them ( you need to select them randomly and announce them publicly), and also include some information about delivering the prize.

Instagram subscription rules

Instagram subscription is a feature allowing you to monetize your content on the platform. But to get this feature, you need to meet a few requirements. 

• Having a professional account with more than 10.000 followers.
• Being at least 18 and living in certain countries where this feature is available. (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States). 
• Complying with Instagram community guidelines and Content Monetization policies.
• Agreeing to the Instagram subscription terms of use.

Instagram Rules And Regulations On Name And Username

Before you start making your account, think about these tips for your name and username:

• You can use emojis or special characters in your Name, but not in your Username.
• Your Username can only have letters, periods, numbers, or underscores.
• Your Instagram username can be up to 30 characters long, including letters, periods, underscores, and numbers.
• If you change your username and want to revert to the old one within 14 days, you can unless someone else takes it.
• You can change your Instagram name twice in 14 days; after the third change, wait another 14 days.
• Instagram usernames are not case-sensitive, so @username and @Username go to the same place.
• Avoid using too many consecutive underscores and numbers in your username.
• Keep your username consistent across all social platforms for easy recognition.
• When choosing an Instagram username, prioritize brevity and easy recall.

Instagram Rules On Reposting

When reposting others’ content (user-generated content) on your Instagram page, things get a bit complicated. Because there are some unwritten rules around it that you need to follow! 

Simply tagging the owner of content might not be enough; you need to ask for permission before reposting their content, even if it’s something related to your brand and they already used your branded hashtag to post it.

What Are Instagram Violations?

You might assume that on the list of Instagram violations are only inappropriate content and copyright law violation, but in fact, it goes beyond that; let’s look at these violations according to Instagram guidelines:

Intellectual Property Violation

You must ensure you have the right to share all your content on Instagram. Sharing content you don’t own without permission violates Instagram guidelines; the owner can report you, and you’ll face the consequences.

Spamming On Instagram

Sending unwanted emails, likes, comments, any form of advertising messages, and harassing people are among Instagram guidelines violations.

Publishing Illegal Content

 Instagram rules prohibit any kind of content promoting racism, terrorism, crime, hate, sexual services, or selling drugs and firearms.

Depicting Graphic Violence

To keep the platform appropriate for everyone, Instagram may remove any content depicting graphic violence. However, you can post content to raise awareness or condemn the subject.

Using Bots And Buying Fake Likes And Followers

Instagram rules on this one are strict, so violating it might put your Instagram account in serious trouble; that’s why you always need to be away from any fraud to gain more followers using bots and unreliable third-party apps

What Are The New Rules of Instagram In 2023?

Instagram rules barely change, but algorithms and features change over time. According to Instagram’s new rules, you won’t be able to post regular video posts on Instagram – all new video posts will be Reels.

How To Bypass Instagram Limits?

There should always be some ways to bypass any limits, and Instagram rules and restrictions are no exception. Don’t worry, I am not encouraging you to violate Instagram community guidelines; what I am talking about is using a trusted Instagram growth agency, to go through these limitations without breaking Instagram rules.

After all, it would be tough to do all the activities on Instagram manually and stay loyal to the Instagram guidelines simultaneously, especially if you are running a business and you need to be active on the platform.

Instagram used to be closed to third-party platforms interacting with Instagram directly. Still, since 2018, you can now work with an official third-party platform like AiGrow, to promote your business on Instagram, managing all aspects of it and getting real results safely and securely.

You can set your desired actions, and they will be done by dedicated Instagram account managers and experts in the field. 

AiGrow’s Instagram growth service enables you to get more Instagram followers fast (at least 300 new followers per month in all of our growth plans). 

Sign up on AiGrow now for free!

What are the unspoken rules of Instagram?

Yes, Instagram has some unwritten rules you need to consider. These aren’t officially listed on the platform, but they matter. If you ignore them, you could get hit with an “Instagram action block.” So, what are these secret Instagram policies and guidelines? Let’s find out. 

Instagram follow/unfollow limits

We’ve covered Instagram follow and unfollow limits in detail in a previous post. But to keep it short, here’s the deal: 

• Instagram has a cap of 7,500 accounts you can follow (this one’s official!). Why not learn the right way to use follow/unfollow on IG?
•  You’re allowed to follow around 150-200 accounts daily, which amounts to 100 followers for new accounts.
•  And when it comes to unfollowing, you can do that for 200 accounts per day. 

Instagram likes and comments limits

Are there any restrictions on likes and comments on Instagram? Yes, there are. You can’t like more than 1000 posts daily, but it’s safer to stick around 700.

And keep your comments at 180-200 a day as going beyond these limits might trigger Instagram’s restrict certain activity error. 

Instagram DM rules and limits

To prevent spam, Instagram sets limits on messaging. So, you can send 50-100 messages daily if you have an active account older than 3 months. 

Remember that you can only forward a message to up to 5 chats at a time. Follow these rules to use direct messages to grow your business. 

Instagram tag and mention limits

Wondering how many people can you tag on Instagram 2023? Well, you are allowed to tag up to 20 people in your posts or stories. This will be max 10 for the comments. 

Instagram hashtag limitations

Everybody knows the importance of hashtags for Instagram growth. To get this point, you can use up to 30 on posts and 10 on Stories. Going beyond these limits stops your content from posting.

FAQs on Instagram rules

Let’s read some frequent questions about Instagram regulations. 

Q1: Why is instagram not letting me post?

If you can’t post, you may have broken the rules of Instagram. However, creating forbidden content could be one reason. There could be other reasons, too. 

• Internet Connection: Ensure you have a stable internet connection.
• App Glitch: Sometimes, the Instagram app might have glitches. Try closing and reopening the app or restarting your device.
• Violating Guidelines: If your content goes against Instagram’s guidelines (e.g., nudity, hate speech), it might not allow you to post.
• Account Issues: Accounts with suspicious activities or violating rules might face posting restrictions.
• Temporary Issue: Instagram might be experiencing temporary technical issues.
• Repetitive Actions: Rapidly performing actions like following, liking, or commenting can trigger a temporary action block.
• Third-Party Apps: Using unauthorized third-party apps can lead to restrictions.

Q2: What are banned formats for Instagram ads?

To make money out of your content, you should use certain formats and avoid the following ones:

• Static videos
• Static image polls
• Slideshows of images
• Looping videos
• Text montages
• Embedded ads

Q3: What are the rules for selling on Instagram?

When selling products on Instagram, you need to follow certain rules and guidelines. These rules include:

• Accuracy: Your product listings should provide accurate and truthful information about the product, price, and features.
• Transparency: You should also state if the product is new or used, and provide information about any defects or flaws.
• Authenticity: You can only sell products that you own or have the right to sell. Avoid selling counterfeit or unauthorized items.
• Legal Requirements: You need to make sure your products comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including those related to safety standards and intellectual property rights.
• Prohibited Items: Avoid selling items that are prohibited by Instagram’s policies, such as illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco products, firearms, adult content, and more.
• Pricing: Moreover, you shouldn’t engage in price gouging or misleading pricing practices.
• Payment and Shipping: Instagram asks you to clearly outline your payment and shipping policies. Be transparent about any additional fees.
• Communication: You’re required to respond promptly to customer inquiries and provide excellent customer service.

Q4: Are there any Instagram live rules?

Yes, everything on Instagram has its own standards, even Instagram lives. The dos and don’ts cover the content and the format. Similar to other content on Instagram, you’re not allowed to use prohibited content in your Lives. Additionally, the Instagram Live video length limit is 4 hours and their ideal form and size are vertical in 9:16.

Q5: Is Nudity Allowed On Instagram?

Instagram community guidelines restrict sexual images and nudity, including any content showing genitals, fully-nude buttocks, female nipples, and sexual intercourse.

However Instagram rules on nudity have some exceptions; according to Instagram guidelines, nudity in creative or artistic photos like paintings and sculptures is okay, as well as images of scarring, post-mastectomy, and women breastfeeding.

Q6: What are Instagram rules and regulations on stories? 

Good news! According to the Instagram 2023 update, there are no limits either for posting or for adding to your highlight.

Q7: How old do you need to be to make an Instagram account?

You must be at least 13 years old to create an Instagram account.