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What is a shadowban?

Written by Lucy Mowatt

Has your business social account been hit with a shadowban?

For many organisations, social media plays a significant role in their marketing activity, helping them raise brand awareness with new audiences and engage new customers.

But, if your business is struggling to maintain consistent growth – or seeing a decline – you may be suffering from a shadowban.

In this article, we take a look at what a shadowban is and how it may manifest.

Tap on the bullet points below to go to the relevant section:

What is shadowbanning?

Shadow ban meaning: Shadowbanning is the term commonly used to describe a sudden reduction in the visibility of social media content, often without an obvious explanation. This may involve content appearing less frequently in feeds, search results, hashtag pages or recommendation features such as Explore and For You.

What does a shadowban look like?

The reason it’s called a ‘shadow’ ban is because it’s not obvious to you. Your account still exists, and you’re still able to post content, but no one will see it. That’s also why the ban is known as a ‘ghost ban’ or ‘stealth ban’.

Is shadowban real?

Most social media channels insist that shadowbanning isn’t real (as outlined below), and that the concept is merely a conspiracy theory that has gained traction among influencers and other social media users.

However, these rumours have persisted for some years. The truth is that it may indeed exist, albeit under a different name.

Shadowban on Instagram

Let us say, upfront, that Instagram vehemently denies the existence of the shadowban. However, Instagram users and influencers beg to differ, suggesting there’s no other explanation for a sudden decline in reach and engagement.

Instagram does, however, say that it reserves the right to block posts sharing inappropriate content or accounts that violate its community guidelines:

“It is our policy to remove content that violates our community guidelines. We may remove entire posts if either the imagery or associated captions violate our guidelines. We also may disable entire accounts for violations of our Community Guidelines.”

Instagram Community Guidelines

If you accidentally break the rules – or moderately infringe upon them – you may find that your content doesn’t appear to non-followers.

If you have a professional account on Instagram, you can find out if any content you’ve posted has violated any guidelines and is not therefore being shown to your users. This is indicated by the ‘Account Status’, which can be found in the ‘Account’ section under your settings.

How long does an Instagram shadowban last?

There is no publicly confirmed shadowban timeframe. Visibility restrictions may be lifted quickly once an issue is resolved, while other reductions in reach may simply reflect changes in audience behaviour or platform algorithms.

Read more: What is Linktree?

LinkedIn Shadowban

Shadowbanning on LinkedIn is perhaps less known, but it is still believed to happen.

Again, there are community guidelines to follow on LinkedIn. Spam is frowned upon, so any posts deemed suspect may be hidden from news feeds. Offensive or inappropriate content and misinformation will also violate these guidelines.

It’s worth noting that if LinkedIn suspects that you are using automation tools to post, comment, like or otherwise interact with other users, you will be falling foul of their rules too.

LinkedIn may interpret this type of behaviour as spammy, which could reduce the visibility of future posts.

Shadowban Twitter (now known as X)

X has historically denied practising shadowbanning. However, it did indicate that content and posts may be downgraded if its algorithm thinks your content is spammy or potentially violating its policies.

You can read the full statement from 2018 here, but basically, the platform looks at what you post, how you post and the accounts that you interact with.

If, from those factors, the algorithm determines that your post may be spam, your content will be downgraded, thus getting fewer views and fewer engagements.

Shadowbanning TikTok

TikTok is no different when it comes to the absence of any direct mention of shadowbanning. However, the platform does recommend that you follow its guidelines in order to ensure that its algorithms pick up and promote your content.

If your content stops appearing on the For You page and engagement drops significantly, some creators describe this as a shadowban. However, it may also be the result of changing audience behaviour, increased competition or algorithm updates.

Can you get shadowbanned from posting too much on TikTok?

When it comes to getting noticed on social media, consistency is key.

However, if you’re producing a LOT of posts, and if these posts are poor-quality and repetitive, it’s likely that your content is going to suffer. This is because it will look spammy to the algorithms, which may subsequently limit your exposure.

How do I fix my TikTok shadowban?

To avoid shadowbanning on TikTok, or fix a suspected shadowban, you need to consistently create relevant, high-quality and fresh content.

Make sure you stay on the right side of their community guidelines, too.

For more tips on fixing shadowbans, scroll down towards the end of this article.

YouTube shadowbanned

YouTube stands with its fellows when it comes to shadowbans and denies that it imposes them.

It maintains that if a video appears to be unsearchable or is performing poorly, it could actually be because it is being reviewed for potentially violating their guidelines. If cleared, the video will then become fully visible.

Am I shadowbanned?

Unfortunately, there isn’t an official shadowban checker for any social media platform. But there are signs you can look out for.

One of the ways to tell is to look at your reach and engagement rates on any channel. If you’re used to getting high volumes of impressions, likes, clicks, comments and replies, and these have sharply declined, you may be a victim of a shadowban.

You should also look for your content’s presence on Explore (Instagram) and For You (TikTok) pages. If you cannot see any of your posts, the social platform may have reduced your visibility through a shadowban.

Shadowban test: can you check if you’re shadowbanned?

Several third-party tools claim to check whether your Instagram, TikTok or X account has been shadowbanned. They typically examine hashtag visibility, account discoverability and engagement patterns.

However, it’s important to remember that social media platforms do not provide official shadowban data because they don’t officially exist. As a result, no third-party tool can definitively confirm whether your account has been shadowbanned.

Instead of relying solely on shadowban test websites, it is usually more effective to:

  • Review your account’s analytics for sudden changes in reach and impressions.
  • Check your account status (where available, such as on Instagram).
  • Look for content that may have breached platform guidelines.
  • Test whether your posts appear in relevant hashtag feeds or recommendation areas.
  • Ask colleagues or followers to check whether they can find your content from their own accounts.

A sudden decline in performance doesn’t automatically mean you have been shadowbanned. Changes to algorithms, increased competition and shifts in audience behaviour can all affect visibility.

How to remove a shadowban

Because social media platforms do not openly acknowledge if shadowbanning is in place, there are no hard and fast rules to getting a shadowban lifted.

The best thing you can do is to make sure you don’t violate the Terms of Use or Community Guidelines on any platform.

You should then consider any behavioural changes that might have resulted in red flags. For instance, different types of content or low-performing content.

Other factors to consider include:

  • Confirming your email address and completing all relevant fields on your profile.
  • Posting fresh, high-quality content.
  • Mixing up your hashtags (don’t constantly use the same ones).
  • Don’t use too many hashtags.
  • Aim to get as much meaningful engagement as possible.
  • Don’t use bots or unapproved third-party apps.
  • Don’t pay for likes, comments or followers.
  • Avoid banned hashtags.
  • Don’t follow and unfollow people quickly to try to raise your own follower count.
  • Avoid posting anything offensive or inflammatory that might get you reported.
  • Don’t do anything that seems spammy.
  • Treat other users with courtesy and respect, otherwise your content could get flagged.

Talk to us about your social media marketing

If you’d like help creating a social media plan, or want our expert help to write your content, please get in touch! Drop us a line at hello@methodmarketing.org today.

2nd June 2024 , ,

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