Navigating the Invisible: Understand Shadowbanning on Social Media

Understanding Shadowbanning on Social Media: Shed Light on an Opaque Practice

Also known as "ghost banning" or "stealth banning", shadowbanning is a discrete form of censorship practiced by social media platforms. It involves making a user's content less visible to others, without their knowledge.

You see your page, and posts still active, but the reach, engagement, or link clicks suddenly reduce significantly.

Different Shades of Shadowbanning

Hashtag Shadowbanning

The most common form of shadowbanning involves a post that contains restricted or banned hashtags. These posts will have minimum visibility in search results and Explore pages so that potential new followers do not see them.

Account Shadowbanning

In this scenario, posts are suppressed, and the page becomes less discoverable. It is often a consequence of repeated policy violations or suspicious activities.

Why the Shadows Creep In: Understanding Causes

• Violations of the Community Guidelines: Posting content that does not follow platform guidelines, such as hate speech, harassment, or explicit images leads to shadowbanning.
• Excessive Automation: Over-reliance on automation tools, such as bots for engagement, can raise red flags regarding the authenticity of the page.
• Spammy Behavior: Engaging in aggressive or repetitive actions, such as excessive liking, commenting, or following/unfollowing, can trigger shadowbanning.
• Misusing Hashtags: Employing banned or inappropriate hashtags can result in hashtag shadowbanning.

How to Observe the Shadows: A Key to Recovery

If you suspect that, for unknown reasons, your account has fallen prey to shadowbanning, follow the below steps.

To check if your account has fallen prey to shadowbanning:

Facebook

• Analyze reach and reactions to your content. However, make sure that the low rate you notice does not come due to “bad posting days”.
• Besides taking care of your content, to avoid being shadowbanned, make sure you use proper and clean hashtags that cannot be associated with undesired content. Moreover, avoid overly promotional content and engage genuinely with your audience.

Instagram

• Choose a recently & frequently used hashtag from your posts in the Discovery tab.
• Search the hashtag from an account that does not follow your page. Does the post appear?
• If you suspect that you might have been shadowbanned, experts recommend taking a 24 to 48-hour break and restart posting using fresh hashtags.
• Steer clear of banned or irrelevant hashtags, and maintain authentic interactions with your followers.Search for the hashtags you plan to use, to make sure that you avoid misusing them.

TikTok

• Ask a user who doesn’t follow you to search for your account. If they have difficulties finding you or you don’t appear in the search section at all, you might have been shadowbanned.
• Monitor video views and comments to see if there is a downfall.
• Your content does not appear on the For You page.

Be careful with spammy behavior - if you follow over 60 people or like more than 150 posts in a short time, you might be viewed as inappropriate. Moreover, make sure that you delete the content that you consider might have been misleading.

*Although on LinkedIn it is said that shadowbanning is not practiced, some experts claim that you might trigger visibility limitations by making many follow requests, promoting fake news, tagging people against their will, or using keyword stuffing. Stick to business-related topics and engage thoughtfully.

Steering Clear: Strategies for a Safe Social Media Journey

• Compliance with Guidelines: Always adhere to the platform's community guidelines. Familiarize yourself with their policies and ensure that your content aligns with them.
• Automation Moderation: Avoid excessive use of automation tools. Focus on unique, genuine interactions with your audience.
• Hashtag Relevance: Utilize relevant hashtags that best describe your content. Research trending hashtags within your niche and use them wisely.
• Authentic Engagement: Actively engage with your audience, fostering conversations, providing users with proper information, and building a community that sees your business page as valuable.