The shadowban on Twitter is a measure that can worry any user of this social network. You may even have tweeted without even realizing that your profile has been the victim of a shadowban .
If you are an avid tweeter on this platform, it is important that you know what a shadowban on Twitter is and how you can avoid it. No matter what stage you or your business is at in the world of digital marketing, shadowban is a term that will manifest itself sooner or later, particularly in social media .
To avoid unexpected penalties, in this article we will explain what is the meaning of shadowban on Twitter and how to check if your account has violated any rules of digital coexistence. In addition, we will tell you how to stop being banned on Twitter so you can express your ideas in a few lines.
Meaning of shadowban on Twitter
Shadowbanning on Twitter refers to the practice of blocking or limiting a user and/or their content without them knowing that they have been temporarily suspended. For example, a comment may be visible to the person who wrote it, but it will be invisible to the rest of the community.
For the offender, the site and platform will continue to look and operate the same, but with the difference that the rest of the users will not see the content posted. The benefit of shadowbanning on Twitter is that if the user does not realize that their account has been suspended, they will be less likely to create another account and use it to continue posting offensive material and content.
An active Twitter shadowban can result in the following changes to your account:
Your tweets or entire profile remain invisible to everyone. Therefore, your followers will not be able to see your posts in the search bar.
Your replies to someone else’s tweet remain invisible and are not displayed below the corresponding tweets.
All notifications of your actions on Twitter will remain suppressed, i.e. your followers will not receive any alerts of your likes, posts or retweets.
Types of shadowban on Twitter
Now, let’s look at the three common types of Twitter shadowban faced by Twitter users:
1. Thread Shadowban
This type of shadowban limits the visibility of your comments in Twitter threads/tweets.
2. Profile Shadowban
This shadowban restricts the visibility of your profile on Twitter and prevents other users from finding your profile through search.
3. Full search shadowban
This type of shadowban blocks you completely, so you will remain invisible to everyone on the platform.
You may not know this, but the term shadowban was popularized in 2018 by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, who accused Twitter of suspending several accounts sympathetic to the Republican party. According to a Vice article, the platform was accused of limiting the visibility of different pro-Trump profiles by not showing them in searches and in some cases without them appearing in the feed.
Source: Unsplash
what are the reasons for shadowban on Twitter?
Shadowban is produced when the Twitter algorithm detects that an account has been misused. Shadowban on Twitter can occur when:
You use Twitter bots.
You buy followers or “likes”.
You use third-party vendor software to increase interactions or followers.
You tweet offensive hashtags or terms.
You post material related to violence, harassment or pornography.
In addition to this, in a world full of fake news, Twitter has also taken measures against this. twitter’s algorithm can search for links or content identified as fake news or disinformation, as well as tweets that incite division or hatred, and therefore limit the visibility of these by means of a shadowban on Twitter.
how do you know if you have a shadowban on Twitter?
Although there is no one hundred percent sure way to determine if your account has been shadowbanned on Twitter, there are some procedures to check if your account’s visibility has possibly been limited.
1. Incognito mode
The first way to identify a possible shadowban on Twitter is to perform the following steps:
In your browser of choice, log out of your Twitter session or start a tab in incognito mode if you are using Google Chrome.
Go to the browse URL, i.e. the Twitter feed.
Click on the search section to the top of the page and perform the following search: “from:user”, replacing the word user with the name of your account. For example, if your account is @juanperez123, your search would be: “from:juanperez123.”
Check the results page carefully. If you can see your tweets, you have not been shadowbanned on Twitter. But if not, it is likely that your account has been suspended .
Source: Unsplash
2. External websites
Another way to answer the question “How do I know if my Twitter account has shadowban?” is with the help of external websites. Basically, they are online tools that allow you to identify if the visibility of your tweets has been limited.
In this case, we will use the Shadowban Test platform. So follow these steps to find out if you have been shadowbanned on Twitter:
Open a new tab in your favorite web browser and go to the Shadowban Test website.
Enter your Twitter username in the search bar and click the Verify button to search for an active shadowban and you’re done. The page will tell you if your account has been shadowbanned on Twitter. This is a very quick and handy shadowban check.
Wait a few seconds to check the results. If you find an active shadowban, you can expand the corresponding information to learn more about it.
3. Social interaction on Twitter
The third method to check for a shadowban on Twitter is to check your account’s engagement. If you are an active content creator and you have a shadowban on Twitter, you will notice a significant decrease in the number of interactions of your tweets.
You can check for a shadowban on Twitter by following these simple steps:
Open your Twitter profile and locate a recent tweet.
Then, click on the Analytics icon to see the impressions and interactions of your posts.
Then, compare the analytics with other recent posts to notice any sudden drop in the interactions of your tweets.
Source: Freepik
how long does a Twitter shadowban last?
If you have taken the Twitter shadowban test and it is clear that your account has been suspended, you must be wondering how long does a shadowban on Twitter last. You should not worry because the ban will not last long. On average, a shadowban on Twitter lasts around 2 to 3 days.
While the duration of a Twitter shadowban can vary according to the offense committed or your number of followers, the typical duration of a shadowban is 48-72 hours.
So don’t panic! Just stop tweeting altogether, as excessive tweeting after a shadowban will only exacerbate the problem and subsequently the duration of your Twitter shadowban will increase, and may even last up to 5 days.
is it possible to remove a shadowban on Twitter?
Currently, there is no way to end a shadowban instantly, so you have to deal with the consequences and wait – if you stop tweeting, your shadowban will disappear in 48 hours at most! So, consider it as a break from social networks (if you don’t tweet anything after the ban).
As we mentioned before, if you continue to tweet during your shadowban on Twitter, it is more likely that your shadowban will be extended for each day you tweet. The best thing to do is to get off Twitter and not use your account.
However, if your Twitter ghostban lasts even after you have stopped tweeting or for more than 72 hours of inactivity, then it is cause for concern. For this, you can contact Twitter’s support staff to resolve the issue. Hopefully, they will get back to you immediately and your account should be up and running in no time.
how to avoid shadowban on Twitter?
Well, after knowing what is shadowban on Twitter, you should be clear that this temporary restriction can be avoided. Therefore, we will share with you a series of recommendations that you can follow to avoid being banned on Twitter. Take note!
1. Configure your Twitter account
To avoid getting shadowbanned on Twitter, let’s start with the basics. When you create a Twitter account or a business profile, Twitter will look at the following to identify if you are a bot or a possibly harmful account:
Whether or not you have confirmed your email.
If you have uploaded a profile picture.
How new your account is (newly created accounts that post offensive content may be labeled as fake).
Accounts you follow and retweet (try not to follow accounts on a single controversial topic such as politics).
Which accounts block you, mute you or unfollow you.
Source: Unsplash
2. Avoid content saturation
If you own a company or business and want to be successful on social networks, try not to “spam” or be too insistent when promoting your brand or product. If you do this, the rest of the community may classify this as spam and block your content, which will result in a shadowban on Twitter.
As Gustavo Serrano, professor of the Content Marketing online course for social networks, explains, “to develop effective content it is necessary to be creative, but above all we must know when and how we apply the brand’s storytelling on the social media narrative“.
In that sense, if you do not want to get into the dreaded Twitter shadowbanning, you must choose the right time to publicize your brand. This way, rest assured that your target audience will retweet your posts incessantly.
Source: Unsplash
3. Make sure you comply with Twitter’s rules and policies
If you like to be in the middle of debate and controversy, try to avoid harmful discussions or being too confrontational in your tweets. In the same way, avoid the famous “trolling”, as doing these actions can affect your reputation on the network and, consequently, your account will be shadowbanned on Twitter.
Source: Pexels
4. Clean your Twitter account
The content of your tweets, retweets and replies has a lot to do with shadowbanning on Twitter. If you have overused generic hashtags or replied with identical tweets to several posts, these could be the reasons for your shadowbanning on Twitter.
If you actively use Twitter, it can be difficult to easily detect those tweets, retweets and replies. In fact, you should spend a lot of time going through your timeline to find the problems that cause you to be banned on Twitter.
Once you identify them, we recommend deleting them mercilessly. It doesn’t matter if it’s the tweet with the most likes on your entire profile because, if you decide to keep it, learning how to remove the shadowban on Twitter will be more complicated.
Source: Unsplash
5. Improve your credibility
If you don’t want to be considered a spam, fake or inactive account, you should avoid interacting with them. Therefore, you should use third-party tools that allow you to detect unwanted accounts from your followers and follower lists with just a few clicks.
As you delete these accounts, you will have a better ratio of followers, which will eventually increase your online credibility and hence, you will never get banned on Twitter.
Source: Unsplash
6. Check your interest list
Your Twitter feed is another area that can attract a shadowban. In that regard, you should start by checking the boxes you checked off of your interest. Find out if there are any of your interests that are worthy of suspicion, whether you have Twitter for business or a personal profile.
Source: Unsplash
Well, dear Twitterer, you now know what Twitter shadowban is, how to recognize it and what to do to avoid it. We know it can be frustrating if you feel like you didn’t do anything wrong to deserve it. you may not always agree with Twitter’s algorithm and its shadowbanning practices, but you can certainly avoid it by following the tips we shared above.
If you want to avoid being shadowbanned on Twitter and keep your tweets visible, remember to respect the community guidelines and rules, including insulting, trolling and sharing offensive material. Twitter should remain a healthy space to debate and share ideas. And if for some reason you feel that the visibility of your tweets has been limited, you can check this on the platform or with external websites.
In the rare case that you have indeed had a shadowban on Twitter, stay away from this social network for a few days until your account functions are restored. But avoid going to these extremes. For now, try not to fall into provocations and tweet in a healthy way. Also, evaluate your performance and eliminate these practices in the future.