On July 26, 2018, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Twitter ‘SHADOW BANNING’ prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.”
The tweet, which was seemingly made in response to a Vice News article published a week earlier, became the most popular social media post by a prominent figure to use the term “shadow banning.” Before then, the sinister-sounding phrase “shadow banning” was mostly used by conspiracy theorists who occasionally protested what they termed discrimination against them by Silicon Valley.
But what does shadow banning mean in the realms of the internet?
Shadow banning, also known as ghost banning, comment ghosting, or stealth banning, is the practice whereby social networking platforms partially limit or fully block a user or their content from showing up on online community forums. Ghost banned posts or comments on a blog or social media website may not be visible to other users accessing that website from their devices. Most social media platforms execute shadow banning so discretely that the affected user may not readily detect the limitations on their profiles.
Read on for more insights into shadow banning and what this concept means for internet users.
The Origin and Evolution of Shadow Banning
The concept of “shadow-banning” internet users or their content has been used since the early days of the web.
The earliest documented incidence of ghost banning occurred in the 70s. At the time, the technique was referred to as toading. Toading typically involved moderating a user by metaphorically turning them into a “toad.” It occurred on multi-user domains (MUDs), Dragons-like chat rooms, and text-based Dungeons.
The next instances of stealth banning occurred in the mid-1980s when bulletin board systems (BBS) forums like Citadel BBS software developed a “twit bit” for problematic users. When enabled, the “twit bit” allowed users to read public discussions but limited their ability to contribute to those discussions.
In 2006, Michael Pryor of Fog Creek Software claimed that shadow banning was a system fully integrated into the project management system FogBugz. Pryor asserted that stealth banning was an ingenuous strategy for making toxic online users become disinterested in your content and leave you alone.
American technology news website, The Verge, described shadow banning as one of the oldest tricks used to ignore someone and pretend they don’t exist. The news website associated the concept with the famous British expression ”to send someone to Coventry. “
But despite its long history of use, the shadow banning concept became increasingly popular in 2016 following claims by conspiracy theorists that Silicon Valley giants were out to silence conservatives. These claims were published by several far right media outlets over the next two years. For instance, Breitbart published a story in 2016 claiming that Twitter was shadow banning. Project Veritas also published an edited video of a former Twitter software engineer explaining the concept of stealth banning and how the social networking platform was using it.
In 2018, shadow banning became a popular term in the political circles. This was after Vice News reported that a significant number of Republican supporters were no longer appearing in Twitter’ auto-populated drop-down search menu. According to the current affairs news channel, this was a classic case of stealth banning. A week later, President Donald Trump tweeted in response to Vice News allegations, becoming the first prominent world leader to use the phrase “shadow banning.” However, it’s worth noting that Vice News’ allegations were denied by Twitter and disputed by several established news outlets, including The New York Times and The Guardian.
The Intention and Implications of Shadow Banning
Shadow banning is a standard practice intended to drive undesired users from a blog, social networking platform, or online community forum. The technique generally targets spammers and online trolls. By limiting a problematic user’s contributions on a platform, ghost banning aims at making the user become frustrated with the website and possible quit the site of their own volition.
But while shadow banning theoretically targets problematic internet users, the implications can be far-reaching.
Not only does ghost banning affect the target user. It also limits how effectively the account can engage with its followers. So, millions of innocent social media users may miss out on a sensitive post, even if that post had ZERO potential for eliciting negative reaction.
Another thing worth noting is that shadow banning happens at various levels.
In most cases, stealth banning affects likes, views, hashtags, comments, and replies. In some cases, the ban may affect a post’s entire visibility. And although rare, some websites can also ghost-ban a user altogether.
How Can You Tell That You’ve Been Shadow Banned?
Every regular social media user understands the nature of engagement their posts often generate. A sudden steep in engagement is the surest indication that your post or comment may have been moderated.
If the moderation affects specific aspects of your account, things should work out fine on your next post or comment. But if your profile has been shadow banned in its entirety, the decline in engagements will persist until you possibly delete or edit the undesirable comment or post.
In some social networking websites, such as Instagram, shadow banning restricts visibility only to people who already follow your account. In other websites, even your followers may no longer access your posts or comments.
Notable Instances of Shadow Banning
Nearly all blogs and social media platforms have made the news for shadow banning content. The reasons for ghost banning may vary from one platform to another. But the implications are nearly the same.
In 2015, Reddit introduced an account suspension feature which had all the hallmarks of a ‘shadow banning’ feature.
In 2016, WeChat banned, without prior warning, posts and comments containing certain keywords.
The following year, shadow banning became rampant on Instagram. Apparently, the platform was blocking posts containing certain hashtags.
In 2018, Twitter made numerous headlines following accusations by President Donald Trump that the social networking website was shadow banning Republican supporters. Later studies revealed that Twitter had been ghost banning content on its platform from as far back as 2014. For instance, one study found that in 2015, the company had shadow banned tweets containing leaked documents in the United States.
The world’s largest online video sharing platform, YouTube, has also had its fair share of ghost banning accusations. Famous YouTubers PewDiePie and Gaby Hana are examples of notable vloggers who have since claimed their accounts were shadow banned. PewDiePie’s case was particularly outstanding. Despite having the most-followed YouTube channel with over 100 million subscribers, one of his videos garnered a paltry 9,000 views. Plus, many YouTube users struggled to find PewDiePie’s channel, videos, and notifications on the site.
Craigslist has also been reported for stealth-banning a user’s ads. The ad poster would get a confirmation email and may even view the ad in their account, but the same ad doesn’t show up in its respective ad category.
More recently, TikTok has come under fire for ghost banning its users. The app was recently accused of banning hashtags associated with LGBTQ+ content.
Conclusion
Shadow banning is a serious threat to your online presence. It can make you lose dedicated followers when they can no longer access your posts. If you’re an e-commerce store, an hour lost due to ghost banning might translate into millions of dollars in potential revenue.
Therefore, it’s important to take all the necessary procedures to keep your account safe from stealth banning. You can do that by implementing any of the following measures;
• Avoid spammy or abusive content
• Avoid copyright infringement
• Avoid graphic or sexually suggestive content
• Avoid posts with misinformation
• Avoid broken or banned hashtags
• Stay away from potentially emotive or controversial topics
• Refrain from manipulating bots to buy followers or likes
• Adhere to the platform’s other terms and conditions
Lastly, always notify support whenever you suspect that your account or post has been moderated. While you’re at it, try to convince them to inform you on the causes for the ban and what you can do to prevent future recurrence.