Instagram Network Analysis (Updated 2024)

Build an interactive network of your Instagram followers and their relations in 3 easy steps! (and quite some time)

_Example:

^{Source: Medium page}

Note

Proof of concept. Use at your own responsibility.
I do not take responsibility for any consequences to Instagram accounts when using this project.
To avoid errors, add 2FA, use Instaloader carefully, and follow the tips in this document.

Step 0

Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/victor-gurbani/instagram_network_analysis/
cd instagram_network_analysis

Install the dependencies:

pip install instaloader -U
pip install requirements.txt

And set your Instagram username (and browser user-agent) in the config.json file.

nano config.json

Step 1

Your preferred browser and run: pip install browser-cookie3 -U && instaloader --load-cookies=BROWSER where BROWSER is chrome, firefox, safari, etc...
Instaloader CLI: instaloader --login=USERNAME (not recommended)

Important

Add --user-agent with your browser's full user-agent when logging in with Instaloader
To avoid detection, use your browser for a few days before using any script.

Step 2

Start scraping your profile and your followers followers:

cd 01\ scraping/
python3 get_my_followers.py
python3 get_relations.py --wait-time 10
python3 relations_to_json.py

--wait-time can be omitted but set it to a high value in seconds to avoid detection
--max-count to set a limit on how many users to scrape before the script exits (progress is saved and can be resumed directly)

To monitor the scraping you can tail -F relations.txt

Caution

Errors occur after Instagram blocks the session due to suspecting that you are using bots.
You must log in again to restore the Instaloader session.

Tip

Open your preferred browser and open Instagram. Without closing it, load the cookies (Step 1), and start the script. Do NOT close the browser window or interact with it during scraping. Use trustworthy accounts and do not use VPNs.

Step 3

Finished! Now visualize the data!

Go to the corresponding folder 02 visual and copy the relations.json file:

cd 02\ visual/ && cp ../01\ scraping/relations.json relations.json

and start or open index.html in your preferred browser (with JS enabled) (for example on localhost:8080).

Step 4 (optional)

Analyse the data

First, go to the third folder copying the data:

cd 03\ analysis/ && cp ../01\ scraping/relations.* ./

And run the analysis scripts! (Update 19/12 All analysis tools work fine now!)

To view the community analysis run (with Louvain or Newman)

cd ../02\ visual/ && cp ../03\ analysis/relations_louvain.json ./relations.json

and open index.html in the browser to see the graph with the nodes coloured by communities.

Original step-by-step guide on how to use the code and interpret the results