Shadow Banning: Know Everything About It

Shadow banning is not a new thing that comes up recently. It haunted many social media users by putting their social media in such kind of an invisible mode. Essentially, your account will become like a ‘shadow’ that cannot be seen by anyone.

So, what’s actually shadow banning? Is shadow banning real? And if so, what’s the effect of it? We’ll give you a comprehensive explanation about it in this article. If you really want to know about it, just stay tuned!

What Is Shadow Banning Social Media?

What Is Shadow Banning? The Latest Threat to Your Campaign, Explained | IMGE
Source: IMGE

Shadowbanning is a term that represents a condition when your social media activity or posts don’t show up on site. It’s like you got banned, but strangely there’s no official notification you received.

That sounds odd, right? But that’s actually happened. In addition to that, we still can’t assure what or who is the culprit of this strange thing. Is it about bug issues or is it just a company’s work?

If we think about it, most social media such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter have been always doing update their systems. Meaning that it’s kind of impossible if something called a shadow ban happened to many of their users, right?

Aside from that, many apps and websites deny that they’ve shadowbanned their users. It’s still become a big question for all. But if we’re going to suspect, the website’s algorithm might be to blame. However, the company will keep silent about this because algorithms are their property of them.

So, is it quite wise to think that social media companies are the shadowbanner? We still have no idea. But apart from who is shadowbanning your account, the effect is still the same none can see your activity or posts.

Know The Type of Shadowbans

What is Shadow Banning (and How to Fix It)
Source: Neil Patel

If you’re going to know what’s the type of shadowban, you can find the answer here. There are at least four general types of shadowbans.

The shadow ban includes the username and hashtags that don’t show up on search suggestions, the blocking of certain features such as likes or replies, the decrease in the following engagement, and a temporary ban.

Additionally, because you can find this issue on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, you need to know how it actually works on making your account appear to be a ‘ghost’. It’s because each social media has its indicator to give you such a penalty (though we can’t really assure that they do so).

How To Know You Got Shadow ban TikTok

TikTok Censorship and Shadowbans 2021 - GubbaTV
Source: GubbaTV

Despite we still can’t catch the shadowban of any social media, we can still check if our TikTok account’s been shadowbanned. You can check through your pageviews and the statistic of your FYP. Other than that, you can try using the hashtag and see if your post appears under the hashtag.

If everything seems normal and good, meaning that you’ve been shadowbanned. But it’s better if you avoid that thing happening to you by following strictly the TikTok Community Guidelines. Try to avoid violence, hate speech, or spamming.

Shadow Banning Instagram And How To Check It

Shadowban Instagram: Apa yang Perlu Kamu Tahu - Carolina Ratri
Source: Carolina Ratri

Besides TikTok, Instagram has been reported by the users for many shadowbans. However, still, Instagram never claims that they deliberately do so. But the Instagram algorithm might be the most possible culprit.

It’s simply to actually know that you’ve shadowbanned on Instagram. Try to open your account with another account to see that your post is still showing up.

In the same way that TikTok requires that you follow its rules strictly, Instagram’s Community Guidelines also require that you do so. So you’ll be saved from any bad things that could threaten the existence of your account.

Posting vulgar photos or videos, a black campaign, hate speech, or anything else that is considered a violation of Instagram rules falls within the category.

Shadow Banned Twitter and How To Avoid It

What's the Twitter 'shadow ban' mystery?
Source: Newslaundry

Be careful because you can get this issue as well on your Twitter account. Twitter did the same thing as other social media by not acknowledging that they might be shadowbanning their users. But the algorithm probably does that.

Twitter has five conditions that will proceed as an indicator of bad-faith actors by the algorithm. There are:

  • Who you follow and retweet
  • How recently was your account created
  • Who follows, mutes, or blocks your account
  • Whether or not you’ve confirmed the email address
  • Whether you’ve uploaded a profile picture

If you violate those conditions, the algorithm will take it as a bad action and they’ll get a reason to ‘shadowban’ your account.

Conclusion

No social media company has acknowledged doing shadow banning to its users. But the issue is really happening and quite bring inconvenient to us. However, we still can avoid this kind of thing by following the social media rules.

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