city-council-instagram-scraper

A simple Python script to scrape a list of Instagram accounts and see if they contain certain keywords, hashtags, or tagged users.

Usage

Create a list of names and accounts to be scraped as a TSV file. (See the included file Helsingin_kaupunginvaltuusto_IG.tsv which includes the accounts of Helsinki city councillors for reference.)
Modify the code to include the keywords, hashtags, and/or tagged users you want to look for.
Comment out the parts of the code which you don’t need.
Run the code and wait. Scraping 50 to 100 accounts will take about an hour. Be reasonable and don’t try to scrape thousands of accounts at a single go to avoid having your IP address blocked by Instagram.

We are not planning to maintain or further develop this code, but you are free to build on it in your own projects.