How to Hide Your Instagram Followers: A Complete Guide

Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 1 billion monthly active users. With so many people using Instagram, privacy and security have become major concerns. One common question is: can you hide your Instagram followers?

While Instagram doesn‘t have a built-in feature to hide your followers list, there are a few workarounds. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain multiple methods to hide your followers on Instagram and the pros and cons of each approach.

Why Hide Instagram Followers?

Here are some of the top reasons people want to hide their Instagram followers:

• Privacy: Not everyone wants their follower list public for privacy reasons. Hiding followers lets you control who can see who follows you.

• Security: Public follower lists can expose you to potential cyberstalking or harassment. Hiding followers protects you from unwanted attention.

• Reduce social pressure: The number of Instagram followers is seen as a status symbol. By hiding your followers, you avoid judgments based on follower count.

• Avoid spam: Spammers often target accounts with lots of followers. Keeping your followers private may reduce spam comments and messages.

As you can see, there are many valid reasons to hide your Instagram followers if you desire more privacy and security. Next, let’s explore your options.

Method 1: Switch to a Private Account

The easiest way to hide your Instagram followers is to make your account private. Here’s how:

1. Open the Instagram app and go to your profile page
2. Tap the menu icon (3 horizontal lines) in the top-right corner
3. Go to Settings > Privacy > Account Privacy
4. Toggle on the “Private Account” option

This will immediately make your follower list and who you follow private. Now, only your approved followers can see your followers and who you follow.

According to Instagram’s latest transparency report, over 25% of users have private accounts as of Q2 2022. This percentage has steadily increased over the years as more users become concerned about privacy.

Making your account private has several advantages:

• It’s the simplest way to hide your followers from the public
• You instantly hide your posts, stories and live videos too
• You can easily switch back to a public profile later

The downside is reducing discoverability and influencer reach by restricting access for non-followers. But for most everyday users wanting more privacy, a private account is the best solution.

Method 2: Remove Specific Followers

If you only want to hide your followers from certain people, you can manually remove followers without making your whole account private.

Here’s how to delete followers on Instagram:

1. Go to your profile and tap “Followers”
2. Scroll to find the follower you want to remove
3. Tap the “Following” button next to their name
4. Confirm that you want to remove this follower

The user you remove won’t be notified or given any indication. They’ll simply discover they no longer follow you if they check your profile.

Selectively removing followers gives you more control than a blanket private account. You can keep your account public and only hide from specific individuals stalking you or making unwanted comments.

However, this approach takes more effort, especially if you have thousands of followers you want to comb through. It’s more practical for removing a few problem followers rather than hiding all your followers.

Method 3: Block Unwanted Followers

Another option is blocking certain followers instead of removing them. Here’s how to block followers on Instagram:

1. Go to the profile page of the follower you want to block
2. Tap the menu icon (3 dots) in the top-right corner
3. Select “Block” to confirm

Blocking is more severe than just removing a follower. That user won’t be able to see your profile, posts or stories at all unless they create a new account.

Benefits of blocking followers:

• Instantly prevents access to your account for that user
• You can add multiple people to your block list
• They won‘t be notified so you avoid potential backlash

Downsides include the follower realizing they are blocked if they check your profile from another account. Block with discretion depending on your goals.

Method 4: Use Third-Party Apps to Hide Followers

In addition to Instagram‘s native options, there are various third-party apps that offer follower hiding functionality:

Followers Insight App

This app lets you privately store your followers list so it’s no longer public. Pricing starts at $2.99/month for advanced insights.

Social Insider App

Social Insider offers follower privacy features across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Subscription plans start at $29/month.

Famoid Service

Famoid lets you buy custom follower, likes and view counts. This gives the appearance of more followers while hiding your actual followers.

The main risk with third-party apps is potential Terms of Service violations if caught using falsified engagement metrics. Use at your own discretion.

Impacts of Hiding Followers on Instagram Algorithm

Instagram‘s algorithm determines what content users see based on factors like engagement, interests, accounts followed and more. So what happens when you hide your followers?

Hiding followers itself likely has little direct algorithm impact. However, having an overall private account means:

• Lower potential reach as posts aren‘t visible to the general public
• Restrictions around hashtag and Explore performance for content discovery
• Less viral potential since non-followers can‘t easily redistribute posts

Influencers in particular should beware of limiting reach and engagement by hiding followers. For more casual personal users, reduced reach may be an acceptable trade-off for more privacy.

How Other Platforms Allow Hiding Followers

Every social media platform takes a slightly different approach to follower privacy controls.

Facebook

Facebook has robust audience selector settings where you can exclude specific people or lists from seeing your posts and profile details. Follower hiding is all-or-nothing though.

Twitter

Twitter lets you protect your tweets and also block users more easily than Instagram. Third-party Twitter apps provide more advanced privacy functionality.

YouTube

While YouTube doesn‘t allow hiding subscribers, your video views and channel traffic graphs can be kept private. Comments and video likes can also be disabled.

So Instagram definitely lags behind other social platforms regarding customizable privacy. Hopefully more granular follower hiding and audience controls arrive soon.

Privacy Regulations Related to Social Media

Recent years have seen growing public concern and policymaker scrutiny over social media privacy:

• GDPR: The EU‘s General Data Protection Regulation includes right to access and right to erasure rules around personal data like follower lists.

• CCPA/CPRA: These California laws also enshrine consumer data access, deletion and opt-out rights that apply broadly to social media usage.

So far these regulations haven‘t sparked major functionality changes by Instagram to hide followers. But legal trends signal greater user empowerment is coming regarding data privacy.

Facial Recognition, Location Tracking and Privacy

Beyond just follower lists, some of the most alarming social media privacy issues involve facial recognition and location tracking technology.

For example, Instagram scans photos and profiles to extract visually identifiable traits for ad targeting like age, gender and race demographics. Your posts can also reveal locations, even if geotagging is disabled.

These invasive forms of data gathering occur largely without user consent or control. Truly securing privacy means tackling technically complex tracking tools reliant on your visual content and device sensors.

Hiding Instagram followers is merely a first step towards reclaiming personal data autonomy. Users should urge platforms like Instagram enact restrictions on covert surveillance exploiting biometrics and geolocation.

Account Type Comparison

Here is a comparison of key capabilities between public, private and creator Instagram accounts as they relate to privacy:

While private accounts offer follower hiding, creator accounts unlock monetization features at the cost of public visibility. Evaluate tradeoffs carefully based on your needs.

Expert Perspectives on Follower Privacy

Techy influencer Jessie Wallace (@jessiewallacetech) argues follower hiding can be liberating:

"As someone approaching 100k Instagram followers, I totally get the pressure to rack up likes and followers. Making my account private let me relax and refocus on community over vanity metrics. I may not go viral or monetize as easily but feeling free to be myself is worth it."

Meanwhile New York Times writer John Herrman highlights risks:

"Beyond followers, even private content faces threats like screenshots or data leaks. Posting anything sensitive is risky regardless of permissions."

Balance these viewpoints based on your personal tolerance. Some exposure may be inevitable if you actively post online.

Final Thoughts

Hiding your Instagram followers definitely takes some extra effort but provides more privacy and security if you feel exposed. Evaluate your personal preferences, influencer goals and safety risks before deciding.

Your main options include switching to a private account, removing specific followers or blocking certain users. Each approach has unique pros and cons to factor in.

Monitor changes to Instagram’s privacy features in case they add ways to hide followers directly. For now, be proactive in managing your audience and reporting issues when they arise.

Focus more on creating great content, building genuine connections and fostering a positive community rather than obsess over follower counts. Ultimately you want real engagement rather than vanity metrics.

Hiding followers is usually a symptom of larger privacy concerns or pressure over superficial social media growth. Address the root issues and find ways to grow your account authentically on your own terms.