At the end of 2018, Instagram updated its algorithm for detecting artificial boosting, immediately affecting mass-following and mass-liking services. Users began seeing more error messages saying their outgoing-like limit had been exhausted. Instagram says the issue arises because users are placing too many likes. We conducted a series of investigations and want to share our findings.

Have you seen this Instagram notification before?
The line of hearts rests in a closed gate next to the hourglass.
A schematic illustration of restricted actions; the blocking-message text is shown alongside.

"Action Blocked. Based on previous use of this feature, your account has been temporarily blocked from taking this action. This block will expire on ****. We restrict certain content and actions to keep our community safe. Please let us know if you think an error has occurred.”

Instagram has reduced the number of likes that can be put per day - MYTH!

We established that outgoing-like limits have not changed. You can still place around 1000 likes per day without problems, while older accounts have a limit above 2000. The same applies to outgoing follows: all limits remain at their previous levels.

“Instagram has started using artificial intelligence to detect mass-following and mass-liking services” — A MYTH!

Yes, we are forced to admit that most mass-liking services have begun to experience problems with outgoing likes, as a result of which people using insta are forced to turn to traditional mass-following. However, this does not mean that Instagram has managed to implement a stable system for identifying automation services. The real reason for blocking is completely different, read about it below...

What's wrong with mass-liking, how to get around the limits on outgoing likes?

First, note that a year ago Instagram began using an unpleasant method of greylisting IP addresses, although it rarely affected ordinary users. The mechanism was simple: if too many actions, such as likes or follows, came from an IP address, Instagram greylisted its entire subnet. Many of you may have seen the effects of these subnet blocks over the past year:

  • In the process of authorization, the social network throws back to the page where you need to enter your login and password (despite the fact that both login and password are correctly entered) - this is due to the fact that your IP is already included in the "gray" list.
    Solution: change the IP address or proxy server and try to log in again;
  • after liking a post, refresh the page: the like disappears because the IP address being used is under suspicion.

These are not all side effects, but we have no desire to list them, since this article is not devoted to old problems. What we are most concerned about today is what consequences may arise when using IP addresses from suspicious subnets.

We should explain what “subnet” means. Suppose you bought a proxy for mass liking and its IP address looks like this: 1. 2. 3. 4. You start mass liking through that proxy and encounter Instagram’s outgoing-like limit. There are two possible reasons:

  • you have actually placed more “likes” than the user is allowed to in this case, you should check the current Instagram limits again;
  • The address you use is located in a subnet that is considered suspicious by Instagram. The subnet looks like this: 1. 2. 3. * - in this example, you can guess that in Insta can not be used to promote IP addresses that start with 1. 2. 3.

Conclusions

1. Instagram has taken drastic measures against automated promotion through likes (and may soon apply the same tactics to mass following): entire IP subnets are excluded to block sources of suspicious activity.

2. The use of services for mass-liking is difficult due to problems associated with finding the right IP addresses, since most of those who offer proxy services place their servers in the same subnets.

3. Our recommendation - use ARC Following (Instagram mass liking), because the problem discussed in the article has been almost completely resolved. We exclude all suspicious subnets in advance and have already configured a complex analytics mechanism to protect clients against these blocks while using mass liking.


Source of information — the bos.bz forum: http://forum.bos.bz/topic/158-limity-v-instagram-2019-novye-ogranicheniya-pochemu-ne-stavyatsya-ishodyaschie-layki/

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