| Has your Instagram business account been suspended recently? Instagram’s practice of banning cannabis-related accounts for violating its terms of advertising cannabis is nothing new. But anecdotally, these takedowns seem to be getting more prevalent. There’s data that supports this, too. Ben Walters of Pioneer Intelligence,which tracks marketing ROI for cannabis brands, has been monitoring various cannabis-related accounts’ Instagram activity since September 2018, growing the company’s database to more than 1,500 handles. In January 2021, Pioneer found about 8% of the valid business accounts it tracks were down. As of June 30, that number was nearly 21%, and the percentage of suspended cannabis-related accounts continues to grow. “Staying compliant on Instagram remains a challenge for all types of accounts posting cannabis-related content,” Walters wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. “It appears brands are now rethinking the risk/reward—Pioneer Intelligence data shows cannabis brands are slowing down their posting activity over the past 52 weeks.” It has been a challenge for us, too. The Cannabis Business Times Instagram account has been down since June 8, as I wrote here, and we’re still actively working to restore it. With all the challenges of operating in the cannabis industry, it can be easy to dismiss social media takedowns as a relatively minor headache and even more trouble than it’s worth. But Instagram, with its estimated 1 billion users, has become an increasingly important marketing tool, especially with limited marketing options available to cannabis operators. We hope to be back on the platform and sharing industry news and stories with you soon. In the meantime, catch up with the latest from CBT on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. -Michelle Simakis, Editor-in-Chief | 