By After Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter he began discussing shadow bans on accounts done by the previous executive team and their staff. Many of these bans appeared confusing to users who had apparently done nothing to violate the Twitter Terms of Service, yet still found their account limited and suddenly not reaching as many people.
In one tweet Elon appears to allude to the fact that Twitter’s internal systems can apply a shadow ban and deboost an account on their own, without any human interference or knowledge.
In case you have some difficulties to see my tweets, I used a shadowban test tool and the result seems to be positive. While I'm not sure it's accurate, the diffusion of my tweets radically decreased after the 2 blocks I had for (not) violating 'non consensual nudity rules' pic.twitter.com/l9M2SVDCqC
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 23, 2022
As a marketer, solopreneur, or brand using Twitter this becomes an obvious issue on your activity, but only once it hits you and nullifies your efforts. Before taking any corrective action you should have a good idea if there really is a shadow ban or deboosting applied to your Twitter account and currently you are unable to obtain this information directly from Twitter.
How to Tell if Your Account Has Been Shadow Banned or Deboosted on Twitter
1. Use a Shadow Ban Detection Tool
Probably the easiest way to see if you have been shadow banned or deboosted if you suspect something has been done to your Twitter account is to use a tool designed to look for the the taletell signs. I recommend using the “Twitter Shadowban Test” tool developed by Karin Sena (based on the prior ShadowbanEU testing tool which has since been decommissioned).
Here’s how to use the tool to see if you have been shadow banned or deboosted:
- First go to the tool’s website here: https://shadowban.yuzurisa.com/
- Then enter your Twitter handle where it says “username” (do not include the @ symbol)
- The tool will run a quick diagnostic to see if you have any known limitations placed on your account including: a search suggestion ban, search ban, ghost ban, and reply deboosting.
As you can see my Twitter account appears to be just fine according to this tool:
2. View a Tweet You Replied to While Logged Out
This will help determine if your account is deboosted or not by simply looking at a thread for a Tweet you replied to, while you are logged out.
- Reply to a friend, colleague, or well-known person/brand on Twitter.
- Copy the URL for their Tweet or on desktop visit their Twitter account while logged out or in an incognito window and find the tweet you replied to.
- Scroll down the list of replies looking for your reply. Keep scrolling and looking and clicking/tapping the “show more replies” link/text (your reply being below the “show more replies” might be deboosting or it might not be deboosting – if there are a lot of replies, you are just buried most likely and not deboosted).
- If you scroll down and do not see your tweet but see a message that says “Show additional replies, including those that may contain offensive content” with a button that says “Show” next to it you might have been deboosted.
- Click the “Show” button and scroll through these tweets looking for yours until you have found it.
- If you found your tweet in the section for “offensive” tweets then you are deboosted by Twitter.
3. Search for Yourself While Logged Out
You can still look for accounts and tweets without logging in to the service. This can help determine if you are being shadow banned or search banned by Twitter. The Twiter homepage used to make it difficult to access the service without logging in. However, since Elon Musk purchased the company and made it private the homepage shows the Explore/Search function of Twitter publicly to the world.
- Start by visiting the homepage or a search URL like this one for my name: https://twitter.com/search?q=joe%20youngblood&src=typed_query&f=top
- Once on Twitter you can openly search for anything, even your name or Twitter handle without logging in.
- Search for your Twitter name.
- Search for your Twitter username / handle.
- If you can’t find either you are likely search banned or shadow banned.
If like Rainmaker1973 above you find an issue with your account you should contact Twitter support and see if they can do something to help you. As of this moment there is not a standard operation proceedure for how to get an account’s shadow ban or deboosting limitation removed. Some users have had success simply tweeting at the new owner of Twitter and he has fixed their issues, but Elon likely won’t reply to everyone.
FAQ’s About Twitter Shadow Banning and Deboosting
What is Shadow Banning?
Shadow Banning is a technique used by some social media platforms where an account is allowed to continue posting like normal but their content will not be visible anywhere to other users of the platform. The origination of the term is not exactly clear, though most agree it likely came from an internet forum (precursors to today’s social media websites). The idea behind a shadow ban is that if the user is posting but unable to get any engagements or replies or drive the intended harmful actions, they will stop using the servicea and move on.
One of the most critical parts of a shadow ban is that the user should be completely unaware that it has taken place, though in most cases there are ways to tell. On Twitter, however, most users are unaware that such an action could or would ever be taken and there are very few ways to tell if you have been shadow banned by examining the platform itself.
What is Deboosting?
Deboosting or “Reply Deboosting” on Twitter hides a user’s replies below a barrier and will only show them if another user clicks or taps on a show more button to review them. Deboosting is supposed to be used for harmful actors including accounts being used to spread spam and malware and those making violent or hateful remarks to others or trying to get others to engage in more violent discussions.
What is the problem with these?
Social Media today consists of 2 types of user accounts: Real Human Users (RHA’s) and Non-Human Users (bots, brand accounts, fake accounts, pseudonym accounts, meme accounts, parody accounts, NSFW accounts, etc…). An RHA account represents the identity close to or identical to a human being in the real world. Non-Human Users often represent something else such as an ideology, a brand, an appliance, or are just for fun. There is nothing wrong with Non-Human Users using a social media service intended for humans as many of us find them insightful, hilarious, useful, or thought provoking.
And, both types of accounts can use the Twitter service in a way Twitter did not intended for it to be used such as spreading misinformation, signal boosting violent actors such as terrorists, or pushing rhetoric that builds one side of a discussion while dehumanizing the other.
The issue with Shadow Banning and Deboosting at Twitter prior to the services privatization (and possibly still under the new ownership) is that the operators of both types of accounts are in many cases humans hoping to have their voice heard, generate new business, or impact the world. Outside of the Twitter Terms of Service there are no guidelines for when or how a user could be shadow banned or deboosted – likely, because until recently most users were unaware that such a thing could occur to them. There are also indicators that staff either coordinated or went rogue to apply these account limitations to people, brands, and other accounts they disagreed with or simply did not like. Since we know that Twitter staff also accepted payment for verification badges, it is also possible that these actions could have been purchased by a negative actor in the business / politics realm attempting to limit their opponents reach.
All of this means that if you used Twitter to engage in discourse which a single staffer at Twitter did not agree with or took offense to anytime between 2006 and today, there is a good chance your account has been limited and you are none-the-wiser except for likely noticing a reduction in engagements on your Tweets or the number of people those Tweets reach.
There is also no official way to dispute a shadow ban and there are no known time limites on shadow bans and deboosting, though in some cases it would seem they can be temporary.
Is a Shadow Ban the Same as Deplatforming?
Close but not really. In Deplatforming a user is totally and completely removed from a platform or outright banned for life – and this is often quite public and well-known to the user. With a shadow ban the user and other users are clueless that it has happened. In some cases a shadow ban might only apply for a small duration of time, while discussing certain topics, or while using certain features of a platform.
Are Shadow Bans, Search Bans, and Deboosting the Only Ways Twitter Can Limit Your Reach Without You Knowing?
Absolutely not. Best guess is that Twitter staff had and currently has several ways of reducing the visibility of your content on the platform that we are not yet aware of and may never know about unless a whistleblower or the platform itself releases this information.