Instagram was never lagging when it came to keeping users private and safe, and it has a set of features that allow users to keep their personal data in order. One of the most popular social networking websites available today, most users are privacy-conscious when they go online.
For those who value privacy highly, it is challenging to navigate around Instagram’s settings to protect personal data. While Instagram has launched a string of privacy-focused features over the years, there is one feature that has remained constant—the public display of followers and following lists.
Can You Hide Your Followers & Following Lists on Instagram?
Unlike hiding likes or the management of direct messages, there isn’t an Instagram feature to hide your follow or followers list. When you go to someone’s profile, you can see how many you’re following and how many are following you. Anyone can see this feature publicly, regardless of your account type, whether business or personal. However, although you cannot make such lists disappear, there are certain measures you can implement in order to limit who sees them.
How to Limit Visibility of Your Followers & Following Lists
Although you cannot remove the follower and following count from your profile, you can limit it so that not anyone sees the full list of accounts. The following are three steps to provide you with greater privacy on Instagram:
- Switch to a Private Account
- Restrict a User
- Block or Delete a User
- Now, let us see in detail each one of them.
1. Convert your account to a Private Instagram Account
Activating the private mode is the most effective method of restricting visibility. Though the number of your followers and followed accounts will be publicly visible, only approved followers will be able to see the full list of accounts.
How to enable private mode:
- Open the app Instagram and navigate to your profile.
- Tap the three horizontal lines on the top right.
- Navigate to Settings > Privacy.
- Under Account Privacy, turn on Private Account.
- Keeping your followers and following list hidden from the world except for those you allow by making your account private.
2. Restrict a User
To keep a certain user from engaging with your account without blocking them completely, you can restrict their account. Restricting a user does the following:
- They won’t be able to see when you are online.
- Their reactions to your post will only be visible to them.
- They will not receive a notification when you read their messages.
How to block someone:
- Go to their profile.
- Tap the three-dot menu at the top right-hand corner.
- Tap on Restrict.
3. Block or Remove a User
If there are others with whom you don’t wish to share your profile details, you can remove or block them.
Blocking someone doesn’t allow them to view your profile, stories, and posts. Unfollowing a follower doesn’t allow them to view your private posts without them knowing.
How to unfollow a follower:
- Go to your profile and tap Followers.
- Find the user and tap Remove next to their name.
How to block a user:
- Go to their profile.
- Click on the three-dot menu at the top right corner of the screen.
- Click Block and confirm.
Conclusion
Instagram does not have a direct way of hiding followers or your following list, but there are ways to limit access for individuals to such information. Making the account private, limiting certain individuals, or unfollowing/blocking the individuals who follow you give greater control over privacy.
While this limitation can be annoying to certain users, the majority of social networking sites tend to keep follower visibility open in order to allow users to grow their network and communities. Instagram would be deviating from standard social media privacy conventions if it were to provide a hide followers and follow lists option at some future date.
