What is Shadowbanning on twitter? ?

I love the world of social media, 🚀 because there is always something new to learn every day. 

​Well today I learnt all about shadowbanning.  This appears to be something that is specific to twitter, but it could also easily apply to other social media networks.  So what is it?

In a nutshell, its the ability for a social media platform to limit the visibility of a person's profile or their content, without suspending their account.  This can happen in a number of ways.  I'll use a tool called shadowban.eu to illustrate 3 ways that twitter can restrict your content or your profile. 

​Here is a link to the tool:

https://shadowban.eu/

The three ways are as follows:

1. Search Suggestion Ban
2. Search Ban
3. Thread Ban

I've included screenshots below that define these 3 terms.

What is also interesting, is that I did some experimenting on various twitter accounts to see if I could establish some patterns.  These accounts were from influencers that I highly admire and respect, and interact with on a frequent basis.  I only performed a limited amount of experiementation, so it not's 100% conclusive, however I'd love to share what I found with you all:

1. The Search Suggestion Ban seems to be quite common.  My @MusicComposer1 account is a great example.  😢
2. Their appears to be a broad correlation between twitter users that have the Search Suggestion Ban in place, and a marked reduction in their Kred Outreach scores.  I'll explain Kred and Outreach scores in a moment.  🤔
3. My follower numbers have been static for the past 4-6 weeks.  😐

Kred is a social scoring tool, that measures two things Influence and Outreach.  I've included some screenshots below that explain the terms briefly.

Here is a link to the Kred Rules that explains in more detail how the scoring works. 

www.go.kred/rules

The great thing about Kred, is that it's transparent.

So my conclusion is as follows. 

​There appears to be a correlation between twitter users that have the Search Suggestion Ban in place and rather low or zero outreach scores.  This is because outreach increases when you retweet @reply or follow.  Now of the 5 or so accounts that I found to be under a Search Suggestion Ban, all their outreach scores were close to zero for at least the past month. 

Here is a screenshot of my Kred Outreach scores.  

Twitter uses AI to determine whether my account and others are breaching their rules.  So I think it's likely that for the few days, you see that Outreach points spike, is due to the twitter AI determining that I was compliant for those few days.

 This evidence to date, points to two possible hypothesis:

1. That twitter has suppressed the visibility of those retweets, replies or mentions, so Kred is unable to pick them up.
2. There is a major issue with the Kred scoring engine.

Given I have been in regular contact with the great people @Kred, and they have been trying to ascertain why this is so, without any joy so far,  I suspect the first hypothesis is far more likely.

So what can you do about it?

1. You can either ignore it and keep doing what you're doing.  The risk with this approach is that you risk further sanctions from twitter around the visibility of your account and the account.  Because twitter believe you are flouting their rules.
2. You can decide to drop twitter and focus on other social media platforms.  Not an option if you're already invested in twitter and you're getting value from the platform.
3. You can change your behaviour.​  The option I would recommend.

So option 3 it is, but keep growing other social media accounts, so you're not reliant on the single platform.  I'm a keen advocate of Instagram and LinkedIn.  I do use Facebook, but I've found that unless your paying to display content, most of my public posts are not very visible to the public.  Maybe it's another form of shadowingbanning......

Anyway, back to the story, I carefully looked that twitter rules, did some more testing, and have developed a theory.  I believe if you follow these 3 rules, you're likely to have the search suggestion ban lifted.

1. Add personal commentary to all your retweets and shared links.  Twitter wants to hear your voice.
2. Do not post substantially similar account on one account.  Twitter doesn't like it when the same post keeps ocurring week after week.
3. Do not send large numbers of unsolicited replies or mentions.  Twitter considers this to be spam.

I'd love for all of you to become engaged in the conversation and share your experiences and thoughts.

Let me know whether you have found any evidence to support or contradict my theory.  Or maybe you're going to try to focus on those 3 things yourself.  You can reach me publicly on twitter using @MusicComposer1.  

My plan is to adhere to my new theory for a 2 week period and report back on my progress and findings.

I truly hope this post helps many of my followers and influencers on their social media journes.

For a full list of the twitter rules, which will aid your sleep at night, here is the link:

​help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules