Why can't find certain Instagram accounts in search or see them in followers/following lists?
I've noticed something really weird happening on Instagram lately and can't find anything about it online so hoping someone here has an answer.
When I look at a friend's account that is private(haven't tried with a public), it says they have 200 followers but I can only see about 140 of them, as in if I scroll through their followers I can only count around 140 of them.
Furthermore, when I searched in their followers list for the first name of an account I know they follow, it didn't come up with anything. I also know this account hasn't blocked me, as when I searched up their full username, I was able to see their account.
Around 120 of those are accounts I already follow, and then maybe 20 accounts that I don't follow, meaning roughly 60 accounts are just completely invisible to me. I don't think it's purely a public/private account thing because I've tested looking at other public accounts I don't follow and can see all of their followers fine, including private accounts I don't follow. So it seems specific to certain accounts.
On top of that, I've also noticed that when I search for someone by their full name that I don't follow, Instagram shows me a bunch of random accounts with the same name that have zero mutuals with me, rather than prioritising the account I'm actually looking for which has 100+ mutuals. Even typing the full name doesn't help. The only way to find someone is if I know their exact username.
Has anyone else experienced either of these issues or know what's causing them? Is there a privacy setting that could explain this?