How does a shadow ban on X work? Social media platform to start displaying labels on banned accounts explaining reason behind their restriction

Shadow bans are about to go transparent. X (formerly Twitter) is about to roll out a brand new update that allows users to know if their account has been shadowbanned and provide an explanation for the action. The social media platform will use a label to openly tell users that their accounts have been shadowbanned.

Different from an outright ban, a shadow ban limits the traction, engagement, and visibility of posts without letting the original poster know. However, X's new update will ensure that all forthcoming shadow bans will now be known to the user. Netizens engaged in checks to ensure that they weren't being restricted.

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X to tell users why their account is being shadow banned

On September 27, 2023, X designer Andrea Conway tweeted a rough preview of the ban label that was all set to make its debut. Despite the UI and copy details not being finalized, she shared two templates of the label in action. "Starting transparency somewhere," she captioned the tweet. The first picture showcased an open notifications tab where a message appeared on top.

"We've added a label to your account which may impact it's reach. Learn more," the message read.

The next screenshot provided two sections on why that particular tweet had a label and what this meant for the account. It read that the platform had found that the tweet contained sensitive content. Sensitive content includes graphic, violent, nudity, s*xual behavior, and hate symbols. Sensitive content can be posted on X as long as it goes with their sensitive media policy.

The new content restriction label that will be available to users (Image via X)

As for what it meant for the account, the screenshot stated:

"The reach of your account and its content may also be restricted, such as being excluded from the For You and Following timelines, recommended notifications, trends, and search results."

Users will receive an explanation for the restriction of their content (Image via X)

The section will also have an appeal button to reconsider bans that users feel were not deserved. Andrea Conway also confirmed that the label and the section will "verylikelyalmostdefinitely" be accessible from the notifications tab. She said that the feature was still being flushed through for final details and that more information would be available soon.

Andrea explained that the label will be accessible outside the notifications section (Image via X)

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"We do not shadow ban": Twitter in 2018

Although X has publicly acknowledged visibility filtering and even made it publicly visible, the platform's stance on shadow banning was entirely different. In an X blog post published in July 2018, when the platform was still called Twitter, former Twitter Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde and former Product Head Keyvon Beykpour explained what shadow bans are:

"The best definition we found is this: deliberately making someone’s content undiscoverable to everyone except the person who posted it, unbeknownst to the original poster."

They further stated their stance on the issue:

"We do not shadow ban. You are always able to see the tweets from accounts you follow (although you may have to do more work to find them, like go directly to their profile). And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology."

In April 2023, X introduced public visibility filtering as part of their commitment to transparency. They added publically visible labels to tweets that were "identified as potentially violating our (X) policies." This meant that the platform could limit the visibility of these individual tweets from timelines and search results and publically showcase the filter via a label attached to the tweet.

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