Getting Shadow-Banned on Social Media

Shadow-banning is when an account is subtly restricted.

The phrase “subtly” is the most annoying part.

It leaves the creator in doubt.

When an account is banned, there is at least some clarity.

The platform will message the creator saying:

‘Due to x, y, and z reasons, you are banned.’

While with shadow-banning, it’s harder to prove.

The numbers don’t lie.

You see the numbers you used to pull in comparison to the numbers you pull now…

Then you show your peers:

‘Look guys! Something definitely is not right. I’m getting shadow-banned.’

Rather than empathizing with you, they pose a question:

‘Maybe you just got boring?’

Are You Imagining Things?

I want to be clear about something.

Plenty of folks do not get shadow-banned.

They really are boring and never had that initial momentum.

Or they drastically switched the focal point of their account.

They got their audience by creating prank videos, but nowadays, they have pivoted to religious content.

The audience is not interested in that type of content.

Other times, the creator has a point.

They really are shadow-banned.

The search algorithms are not referring their content to their followers.

2 reasons for getting shadow-banned are:

• Polarized content.
• Redirecting content.

Let’s analyze both.

1. Polarized Content

This one is not rocket science.

If your page discusses polarized topics, then you may get some initial buzz.

Rape, getting disowned, international politics etc.

These are topics that get people riled up.

Since there is so much passion, there will be a lot of clicks.

Social media loves clicks.

That shows a high engagement.

There’s an old saying that goes like this:

“The candle that burns twice as bright lasts half as long.”

The initial buzz comes with a lot of downsides.

One of the downsides is that your account begins to get more complaints from those who oppose you.

They mass report you.

Soon, the social media platforms get a warning saying that your account is dangerous.

Often machines shadow-ban you or limit your account.

It’s just because your account is registering an unusual amount of mass reporting.

Polarized content leads to a lot of initial buzz.

But ultimately, it leads to permanent bans or shadow-bans.

2. Redirecting Content

This is another way to get shadow-banned that most people don’t talk about.

When your content takes the traffic from one platform and sends it to another platform.

That’s how I got shadow-banned on Twitter.

I never tweeted to strictly grow on Twitter.

My intention with this platform was to create synergies among my other platforms.

So, I’d use Twitter to send traffic to my blogs, books, YouTube videos, and more.

Everything seemed to be going well.

I was building my media empire one person at a time.

Until one day…

My numbers drastically dropped.

I remember I went from getting 2 million impressions a month to 280,000.

It was abrupt.

And that’s what shadow-banning is like.

It’s an abrupt change.

With Twitter, a lot of users turn on post notifications from their favorite creators.

I started to get DMs from my followers saying:

‘I turned on your post notifications, but I still don’t get messages when you post. Strange!’

Strange indeed…

What to Do When You’re Shadow-Banned

This isn’t one of those posts where I give a blueprint on how to reverse your shadow-ban.

I heard there are services like that though.

I believe getting shadow-banned should show you the difference between renting vs ownership.

When you are using someone else’s platform, you are using their property.

Not yours.

Just with a snap of a finger, they can put you in the irrelevant category.

In the beginning, this feels very unfair:

‘What the hell! I didn’t even do anything.’

But whining is useless.

More often than not, no one will empathize with you either.

Unless it’s happening to them, they will talk down on you.

‘Did you think about switching up your content?’

This is not a snide question.

However, when you know it’s not the content that’s the problem, but the media platform…

Then a harmless question is perceived as a snide implication.

When you get shadow-banned, you should focus more on gaining ownership over your content.

When I got shadow-banned on Twitter, it showed me something.

The average Twitter user sees 100s of tweets a day.

Therefore, the creator gets lost in the sea of content very fast.

But when someone comes on the armanitalks.com website, I am their sole attention.

I cannot get lost in the sea when I am the sea.

Getting shadow-banned should show you who you should be loyal to.

Stop being loyal to these platforms.

They will ban you or shadow-ban you at any moment.

Instead, build an email list or get a website.

You own that.

It Can Happen to You

I recall in 2018, my Twitter account was on fire.

I had gained 10000 followers in 6 months.

Back then, that was very impressive.

I think I was one of the fastest-growing self-improvement accounts.

Different people were inviting me on their podcasts.

Others were asking me how to grow on Twitter.

People were asking me how to create engaging content.

I thought I had all the answers.

I thought I was the growth king of Twitter.

Until one day, I got shadow-banned.

That’s when I realized that I didn’t have the answers.

I tried to create more content.

• Didn’t work.

I tried to switch up my content.

• Didn’t work.

I stopped sending Twitter traffic to external platforms.

• Didn’t work.

I was sent into the abyss.

All good.

Getting shadow-banned on Twitter gave me a wake-up call.

I never owned that platform.

I was just a guest on their land.

This realization made me work extra hard on my website.

I create unique content on the website and am subtly growing it.

If you get shadow-banned, hopefully, you get the same realization.

Ownership beats renting someone else’s property.

For more tips on content creation, check out the ArmaniTalks Newsletter

– ArmaniTalks