Table of Contents
What does ‘shadowban’ mean?
How to check if you’ve been shadowbanned
How to lift your shadowban on Twitter
Key takeaways:
1. How to check if you’ve been shadowbanned:
Open Twitter in Incognito or Private Browser Mode: This hides your identity from Twitter.
Visit the Twitter Explore page and type your username into the search box: If your posts appear, you're not shadowbanned; if they don't, you likely are.
Check your tweets and replies: If they don’t show up under the hashtags you’ve used, you might be shadowbanned.
2. How to lift your shadowban on Twitter:
Take a break from posting for at least 72 hours: This helps reset your account.
Review and remove any potentially flagged posts: Ensure your content complies with Twitter’s guidelines.
Avoid behaviors that trigger shadowbans: Such as using automated bots or posting spammy content.
Are your Twitter posts not getting any engagements? Are you not showing up in searches? Do you think your organic posts are being hidden from other users?
You might have been shadowbanned.
What does ‘shadowban’ mean?
When you are shadowbanned, a platform has blocked or partially blocked you and your content without you knowing. Twitter may have made your tweets and retweets undiscoverable to everyone else except you, even when you use hashtags!
This means you may get LESS, or even NO likes, comments, retweets or engagements.
Platforms are very sneaky about this. Also known as stealth banning, ghost banning, or commented ghosting, shadowbanned users will not be alerted when this happens to them.
Twitter claims they do not shadowban people, however many users have noticed several things indicating they have been shadowbanned. Keep reading to find out how you can check!
How to check if you’ve been shadowbanned
Twitter don’t want you to know this, but checking if you have been shadow banned can be done in a few simple steps. Here’s how.
Here’s how.
By searching via Incognito mode, your activity data will not be saved and your identity is essentially hidden. Simply put, this means Twitter won’t recognise that the incognito version of you is the same person connected to your Twitter account.Here’s how.
Step 3: Type you username into the search box.
When you type your username, e.g. john_smith into the search bar, do your posts and replies come up? If yes, that’s great news, you are NOT shadowbanned!
Can’t see your tweets and replies? Uh-oh, you’ve been shadowbanned. Keep scrolling to find out what to do next.
How to lift your shadowban on Twitter
There are a few ways to remove a shadowban on your Twitter account.
We've also got information about shadowbans on Instagram too.
The best (and easiest) way is to TAKE A BREAK from posting!
Lay low. Stop posting and replying for at least 72 hours.
Twitter shadowbans are thought to only last 2-3 days. If you post in this time, you run the risk of your account being shadowbanned for even longer!
You can also take this time to look back at your posts and remove any comments or tweets you have made that Twitter might have assumed are spam. Going forward, avoid posts and comments like this again.
This way, you can avoid your account getting shadowbanned again in future.
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