What’s Shadow Banning? How To Avoid It

If your social media account has been shadow banned, you may notice you’re getting less engagement than usual, which can be concerning. Thankfully, shadow bans aren’t permanent, and following a few best practices will prevent this from happening to you. 

Read on to learn what shadow banning is and how to avoid it.

What’s Shadow Banning? 

Shadow banning happens when a social media platform limits or hides someone’s posts without telling them. People can continue posting, but followers will have a harder time finding that content in search results and feeds.

Platforms do this for multiple reasons, including: 

• Limiting automated bot posts
• Reducing content that violates policies
• Preventing spammy behavior like excessive posting and following

Deciding whether a user has violated policies is often a subjective decision, and most people won’t realize they’ve been shadow banned until they notice a drop in engagement. Thankfully, shadow bans are often temporary, so they likely won’t have long-term impacts on the account.

How Do You Know if You're Shadow Banned?

Social media platforms usually won’t tell you if you’re shadow banned. However, a few clues can indicate that they’ve suppressed your account: 

• Reduced follower engagement — A sudden, sharp decrease in likes, views, and comments on your posts is often the first thing you’ll notice. If your content quality hasn’t changed, a drop in engagement could be because of a shadow ban.
• Removed from search suggestions — Log into another account and search for your username or hashtags. You may not see your profile pop up if you’ve been banned.
• Restricted features — In some cases, a platform might limit your ability to like or comment on other content.

Possible Reasons You’re Getting Shadow Banned

If your content goes against a platform’s policies, users and social media algorithms may detect and report it.

Below are a few behaviors that can cause a shadow ban:

• Spammy behavior — Excessively posting links in other people’s comments, using banned or irrelevant hashtags, and promoting clickbait can all cause algorithms to mark your account as spammy.
• User content violations — Each platform has their own guidelines regarding hate speech, harmful content, and respecting other users. While it’s not always easy to know where social media sites draw the line, breaking these rules can lead to a shadow ban.

Social Media Platforms That Are Known to Shadow Ban

Platforms don’t often admit to shadow banning entire accounts, but most say they’ll suppress or remove individual posts that violate community guidelines. Here’s a bit more detail about shadow bans on some of the most popular social media sites.

TikTok Shadow Ban

TikTok’s content moderation policies don’t mention shadow banning individual users. However, they’ll remove content that’s not allowed, restrict mature posts to age-appropriate viewers, and make certain uploads ineligible for their For You Page.

YouTube Shadow Ban

If videos contain controversial keywords or harmful content, YouTube can temporarily hide these posts while they review the footage. The platform uses a combination of machine-learning algorithms and human reviewers to double-check posts for violations. Any uploads that violate the terms of service are subject to removal or age restriction.

Instagram Shadow Ban

Like the other platforms, Instagram says they don’t shadow ban accounts. Instead, the algorithm will attempt to automatically remove posts featuring suggestive or illegal content, spam, banned hashtags, and copyright infringement.

Twitter Shadow Ban

X (formerly Twitter) claims not to shadow ban, but some users still face content suppression on the site. Overall, their content moderation rules restrict people from uploading hateful or illegal posts. 

Facebook Shadow Ban

Facebook doesn’t have explicit shadow banning policies. In general, though, the algorithm tries to remove controversial or spammy posts. The platform has also deleted accounts entirely for sharing harmful or fake content.

5 Tips To Prevent Getting Shadow Banned

When your content gets shadow banned, there’s usually a reason behind it — even if the ban was a mistake. Following the five tips below is the best way to avoid this issue.

1. Follow Community Guidelines

The easiest way to prevent a shadow ban is to learn each social media platform’s policies and abide by them. Usually, this means respecting other users, avoiding harmful or hateful content, and not spamming uploads.

2. Avoid Using Irrelevant or Banned Hashtags

Don’t include too many hashtags in a post or use tags that aren’t related to your content. Algorithms can interpret this behavior as an attempt to manipulate reach instead of encouraging genuine engagement.

Platforms may also restrict specific hashtags, and using them may cause sites to flag your post. To find out which hashtags to avoid, simply search for them. If the platform sends you a warning message or doesn’t pull up any relevant results, it’s best to avoid that phrase in your content. 

3. Post Relevant and Original Content

Plagiarism and copyright infringement can get you shadow banned — or restricted outright. The easiest way to avoid this is by creating completely original content. However, if you want to use a portion of someone else’s work in your piece, review the social media platform’s copyright rules before posting.

4. Limit Spammy Activities

Avoid spamming your own or other’s feeds with irrelevant content. Activities that algorithms may flag include: 

• Uploading the same posts repeatedly
• Following or unfollowing mass amounts of accounts at once
• Posting generic or automated comments
• Using misleading headlines or thumbnails (otherwise known as “clickbait”)
  

5. Engage With Followers

The more genuine engagement your content gets, the less likely platforms are to restrict your profile’s visibility. Algorithms track metrics such as likes, comments, and shares to gauge how interested audiences are in your posts. By fostering connections with your followers and regularly sharing content they enjoy, you signal to the platform that your profile is trustworthy.

Make Social Media Content Faster With Captions

After putting in the effort to create content, you want audiences to see and engage with your uploads.

The easiest way to maintain a strong social media presence is by using Captions. Our AI tools — such as the Hashtag Generator and Ad Copy Generator — help you automatically make posts that follow each platform’s guidelines. 

Try Captions today.

FAQs

Is Shadow Banning Real?

Shadow banning is a real phenomenon — although most social media platforms claim that they don’t shadow ban user accounts, they commonly suppress individual uploads. If these sites ban most or all of someone’s posts, that’s effectively a shadow ban on the user.

Is Being Shadow Banned the Same as Being Blocked?

No, these two things aren’t exactly the same. When you’re blocked, an individual account owner prevents you from seeing or interacting with more of their posts. Shadow bans happen when algorithms stop showing other viewers your uploads.

How Long Does a Shadow Ban Last?

A shadow ban can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the platform and severity of the content violation.

Is it Possible to Reverse a Shadow Ban?

In general, a shadow ban will reverse on its own after a period of good behavior from the user. Stepping away from the site for a while is often helpful.

How Do You Tell If You’re Shadow Banned on TikTok?

Like other social platforms, the most common indication that you’ve been banned on TikTok is a sudden decrease in engagement. Additionally, if you can’t find your profile on the app or can’t use certain features, you may be shadow banned.