Dark Joseph Ravine has always been an avid user of social media especially Instagram. He loves to engage and communicate with his fans. Ravine offers giveaways to show his gratitude to his fans for their engagement and support. Ravine tries to respond to his DMs and returns reciprocal messages to fans who send him their love.
Instagram has many features which can draw attention to its users. The Facebook-owned company has recently surpassed over 1.1 billion users. Many people have been wondering why is it that Ravine’s Instagram account @realdjr is private? The question is an important one as most celebrities, businesses, brands, and influencers are public on Instagram. Ravine explains why he chooses to keep his account private instead of public.
Ravine believes that remaining private on Instagram allows his giveaways to be more exclusive because only his fans and followers can participate. With a private Instagram account, Ravine’s personal information remains private and less prone to hackers and other issues that may come up with a public platform. Ravine explains, “Turning my account private was the best thing I ever did because I could run my giveaways for people who actually followed me based on genuine interest and eliminate dealing with haters. My hate rate dropped significantly from my old account which was disabled and restored to my new one. I feel that being private has protected me from violating Instagram’s terms and people attempting to hack my account as has happened in the past. I think the more open you are on social media, the more problems you are asking for. With privacy, there are less problems in the long run.”
While all social media platforms run on automation, there is a risk for accounts being taken down due to a violation of terms on their platform. Social media trolls who are envious and unhappy about the success and attention certain influencers and celebrities receive are always looking for ways to hack into influencers’ accounts and abuse the automation system, with the goal of having the account taken down. The automation system is not perfect and can be manipulated into believing the false accusations of trolls, which can result in user accounts becoming disabled or restricted. Says Ravine, “My account was disabled once because my activity was considered a violation and this accusation was perpetuated by an online troll. Social media companies need to take into consideration that there are trolls who do this for fun. Getting disabled due to online trolls is tough and that’s why my account is private.”
While social media companies cannot control the activity of online trolls, changing an Instagram account from public to private will eliminate many of the problems that come with public accounts. Online trolls are less likely to succeed in shutting down a private account because users can vet out who they will accept as followers. Hackers and haters would do best to make the most out of their time and stop trying to shut down accounts which have nothing to do with them. Ravine hopes to counter the negativity of online trolls with his own dose of kindness and positivity.