Yes, with heavy caution.

If you are a social media manager, data analyst, or growth hacker who understands Python and Instagram’s limitations, InShackle is a goldmine. It delivers $50/month worth of features (unfollow tracking + story downloads + mass actions) for free.

If you are a casual user who just wants to see who unfollowed them, you are better off using a manual website like "Unfollowers" or a safe mobile app. The risk of losing your entire photo history to a script misclick is too high.

Final Pro-Tip: Create a new Instagram account. Run InShackle on that account for 2 weeks. Learn its rhythm. Only then, point it at your real profile.


Instagram lets you see your follower list, but it does not show you who has unfollowed you. You have to manually compare lists—an impossible task for accounts with 1,000+ followers.

How InShackle solves this:

Use case: Identify one-way followers. You can then decide to unfollow them, cleaning your feed of "ghosts."

InShackle (found at github.com/xd20111/inshackle) is a Python-based command-line tool designed to interact with Instagram’s private API (Application Programming Interface). Unlike browser extensions or shady "give me your password" websites, InShackle runs locally on your machine.

In a nutshell: It mimics the Instagram app but gives you raw data and automation capabilities that Meta deliberately hides.

The repository has gained hundreds of stars because it addresses three universal pain points:


Instagram aggressively fights automation. If you behave like a robot, you will be action blocked (temporarily banned from liking/following) or permanently suspended.

Golden Rules:

Signs you are about to be banned: