A few days ago the big purge happened on Instagram. It mostly attacked accounts related to Pakistani lifestyle. With the parent company (Instagram) holding accounts responsible for violating their policy by posting replicated content, as many as 67 Instagram accounts were disabled. They were not abandoned without a means of reclaiming however and Instagram is currently restoring accounts which have gone through the process prescribed by them.
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Instagram flags accounts that blindly ‘copy paste’ PR info as ‘spam,’ which is why so many accounts were purged this weekend.
A few days ago the big purge happened on Instagram. It mostly attacked accounts related to Pakistani lifestyle. With the parent company (Instagram) holding accounts responsible for violating their policy by posting replicated content, as many as 67 Instagram accounts were disabled. They were not abandoned without a means of reclaiming however and Instagram is currently restoring accounts which have gone through the process prescribed by them.
There was shock and exclaim over the missing accounts but it lead to one basic question: why did it happen? This leads us to the bigger problem in the lifestyle sector on Instagram, which is lack of originality. With social media agencies and PR companies sending out pictures to dozens of account holders who then post them en masse without sometimes even bothering to change the text in the caption, they simply replicate what is written in the digital press release. This leads to feeds in Pakistan becoming vomit inducing in terms of content and everything looking the same; even the spelling mistakes or grammatical errors made by the kids working at the digital end of PR agencies are replicated without an edit. Obviously, this also harkens back to the issue that the lifestyle industry has had with multiple Instagram accounts popping up daily like once blogs popped up to get passes to those “coveted” events. Anyone with a smartphone can have an Instagram account and anyone with a credit card can ‘buy’ fake followers but this does not mean all Instagram accounts are credible.
As many as 67 Instagram accounts were disabled for violating Instagram’s public policy.
There are certain requirements to being a valued Instagrammer or blogger, chief amongst them being the capacity to actually write as well as generate original content (be that text or pictures) which both draws traffic and provides ROI to the brands they are endorsing. The term ROI is being used here because many of Pakistan’s Instagram accounts charge a pretty penny to promote content (per post) resulting in the entire platform resembling those bill boards our honorable courts decided to put down for being an eyesore on our city line. Instagram accounts that promote anyone who can pay also end up looking like eyesores.
This model of paid Instagram posts is not a case of blackmail; it happens all over the world. This model for content promotion has been copied then desified from fairer shores. However, a Gigi Hadid posting something to her millions of followers actually gets the brand she is charging magnificent conversion. Which is why she is paid top dollar in the first place. I sometimes wonder how much conversion do Pakistani accounts provide? Many of the coveted accounts that have over 300,000 followers don’t even give a post five minutes of breathing time before putting up the next post. This is known as cannibalization of content. Also, It girls and portals abroad charge for “campaigns” which they “design” either themselves or by marketing for the brands they are promoting. You cannot get Giselle, for example, to post about someone’s dinner unless there is a tie in…and by tie in I mean an actual hook for the brand.
Most Instagrammers are not so credible in Pakistan, which is why accounts are purged in regular sweeps and also why (for certain accounts) Instagram followers suddenly drop in about 1000 to 3000 person chunks overnight. This is the parent company’s way of clearing spam. Some portals and the brands even lose their entire following upon these instances only to regain them again after the proverbial weekend. Brands and advertisers need to be wary of who they are banking on.
I think it’s time when the lifestyle/fashion industry in Pakistan woke up to prefer quality rather then quantity and engagement rather then followers. It would allow us to be able open our Instagrams without getting plastered by someone’s wedding #ohimsorich to a pic of the same #ohsopretty shoot to a #ohsokoolparty plastered across our feeds like a bad rash. Come to think of it, there is a salve for a rash but nothing for the egos that need constant stroking, sometimes literally in our lifestyle industry except to see their brand on every portal…just because when I sneeze Insta stops baby…
— Tech E. Khan is a soul at sea trying to keep above the digital waves that threaten to engulf us all.
