Can I Hide My Following and Followers List on Instagram?

Many social media platforms, Facebook and Tiktok can be taken as examples, have the options for its users to hide their friends list or their following list. Although it was expected from Instagram to give its users this same option, unfortunately, it is still not out there.

However, Instagram, as an enormous platform, does its best to protect its user’s privacy, so there are some steps that would get you closer to hiding your activities on the platform.

What can I do to heighten my privacy on Instagram, since I can’t hide my following list?

Even though Instagram won’t let you hide your followers/following list from other users, you can take precautions.

1. Have you thought about switching to a Private profile? If your account is set as a Public profile, you can switch it from public to private, so only the people which you’ve approved to follow you will be able to see who you’re following. If your account is public, the information that your account contains will not be visible only to specific people, but to anyone on or off Instagram.

• Besides seeing your following/followers list when using a public Instagram profile, people will be able to see your Instagram story, your posts, likes and comments and photos you’ve been tagged in.
• You can do this by opening ‘Settings’, clicking on ‘Privacy and Security’ and selecting ‘Private Account’.

1. You can switch your activity status off, so people can’t see when you’re available on Instagram. You can do this by opening ‘Settings’, selecting ‘Privacy and Security’, and shutting it off under ‘Activity status’.
2. In case a user is texting you constantly and you don’t want to keep receiving these messages, Instagram offers you the option to block a user. You can do this by opening the chat details, scrolling down, and clicking on ‘Block this user’.
3. If you don’t want a specific person to see who you’re following, or who you’re followed by, you can always remove them from your followers list. If your account is private, they will be unable to see information of this sort on your profile.
4. Hiding your Instagram stories: you can hide your stories from users on Instagram who are on your following list. Also, you can add specific people to your ‘Close friends’ list, and make sure that only your closest friends see what you post on your stories. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t offer hiding posts from certain people like Facebook does.
5. Restricting people you don’t want to remove from your account: Instagram created a new feature, giving its users an option to restrict someone. Once an account has been restricted, none of their posts or stories will show up on your feed, and in case you receive a message from them, it will be placed in the ‘Message requests’ folder, where you have to accept it or decline it.

Check out also how to remove people from 'Discover People' on Instagram.

Bonus read: How to save Instagram followers list.