Shadow-banning: Difference between revisions

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'''{{Wplink|Shadow banning}}''', also known as '''stealth banning''', '''hell banning''', '''ghost banning''' or '''comment ghosting''', is a practice done in social media, with the objective to censor, block or hide information that might be considered sensitive for the company, a government or an entity, not showing evident signals to the publisher that their content has been banned.

==How it works==

Shadowbans ~~usually~~ use practices to think the publisher has still visible their post or content. Common practices usually involve into hiding posts from algorithm recommendations or search results, and making the posts visible for the publishers. More aggressive practices hide completely the posts and making them completely inaccesible from links, but the posts are still visible by the publishers.

Shadowbans typically use practices to think the publisher has still visible their post or content. Common practices usually involve into hiding posts from algorithm recommendations or search results, and making the posts visible for the publishers. More aggressive practices hide completely the posts and making them completely inaccesible from links, but the posts are still visible by the publishers.

==Why it is a problem==

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Shadow bans can be used as a form of arbitrary censorship, preventing users to share information that might even be legal or harmless. There have even been cases in which such content is prematurely age gated due to legislature. This practice could also be used to silence whistleblowers of important public knowledge that a cooperation may spend to cover it up.

=== Privacy ===

===Distortion of information===

With the increasing platforms adopting age-verification, some platforms may outright choose to shadowban you even if you are compliant and do not violate any of the terms for using such an account. The increasing LLM platform content moderation where your identity used to verify your account could also have access to all your other accounts and shadow ban them ~~simaltaniously~~ based on a post ~~that you may have made~~ or remark you may have ~~said reguardless~~ of how old it was.

Shadow bans might be used to hide facts or opinions and generate artificial biases or false perspectives as a method to manipulate users online and make them to change their opinion or perspective on something. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Zaman|first=Tauhid |date=9 May 2024 |title=How Shadow Banning Can Silently Shift Opinion Online |url=https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-shadow-banning-can-silently-shift-opinion-online |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240511021928/https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-shadow-banning-can-silently-shift-opinion-online |archive-date=2024-05-11 |access-date=13 Jun 2026 |website=Yale Insights}}</ref>

===Privacy===

With the increasing number of platforms adopting some form of age attestation or verification, some platforms may outright choose to shadowban you even if you are compliant and do not violate any of the terms for using such an account. The increasing LLM platform content moderation where your identity used to verify your account could also have access to all your other accounts and shadow ban them simultaneously based on a post or remark that you may have shared regardless of how old it was.

===False positives===

Several social media use automated moderation to shadow ban content, usually resulting ~~into~~ algorithm mistakes that flag harmless content~~, damaging an~~ user's visibility on social media.

Several social media platforms use automated moderation to shadow ban content, usually resulting in algorithm mistakes that flag harmless content and accordingly damage a user's visibility on social media.

==Examples==

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 '''{{Wplink|Shadow banning}}''', also known as '''stealth banning''', '''hell banning''', '''ghost banning''' or '''comment ghosting''', is a practice done in social media, with the objective to censor, block or hide information that might be considered sensitive for the company, a government or an entity, not showing evident signals to the publisher that their content has been banned.
 ==How it works==
-Shadowbans usually use practices to think the publisher has still visible their post or content. Common practices usually involve into hiding posts from algorithm recommendations or search results, and making the posts visible for the publishers. More aggressive practices hide completely the posts and making them completely inaccesible from links, but the posts are still visible by the publishers.
+Shadowbans typically use practices to think the publisher has still visible their post or content. Common practices usually involve into hiding posts from algorithm recommendations or search results, and making the posts visible for the publishers. More aggressive practices hide completely the posts and making them completely inaccesible from links, but the posts are still visible by the publishers.
 ==Why it is a problem==
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 Shadow bans can be used as a form of arbitrary censorship, preventing users to share information that might even be legal or harmless. There have even been cases in which such content is prematurely age gated due to legislature. This practice could also be used to silence whistleblowers of important public knowledge that a cooperation may spend to cover it up.
-=== Privacy ===
+===Distortion of information===
-With the increasing platforms adopting age-verification, some platforms may outright choose to shadowban you even if you are compliant and do not violate any of the terms for using such an account. The increasing LLM platform content moderation where your identity used to verify your account could also have access to all your other accounts and shadow ban them simaltaniously based on a post that you may have made or remark you may have said reguardless of how old it was.
+Shadow bans might be used to hide facts or opinions and generate artificial biases or false perspectives as a method to manipulate users online and make them to change their opinion or perspective on something. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Zaman|first=Tauhid |date=9 May 2024 |title=How Shadow Banning Can Silently Shift Opinion Online |url=https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-shadow-banning-can-silently-shift-opinion-online |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240511021928/https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-shadow-banning-can-silently-shift-opinion-online |archive-date=2024-05-11 |access-date=13 Jun 2026 |website=Yale Insights}}</ref>
+===Privacy===
+With the increasing number of platforms adopting some form of age attestation or verification, some platforms may outright choose to shadowban you even if you are compliant and do not violate any of the terms for using such an account. The increasing LLM platform content moderation where your identity used to verify your account could also have access to all your other accounts and shadow ban them simultaneously based on a post or remark that you may have shared regardless of how old it was.
 ===False positives===
-Several social media use automated moderation to shadow ban content, usually resulting into algorithm mistakes that flag harmless content, damaging an user's visibility on social media.
+Several social media platforms use automated moderation to shadow ban content, usually resulting in algorithm mistakes that flag harmless content and accordingly damage a user's visibility on social media.
 ==Examples==