shadow ban

or shad·ow·ban

[ shad-oh ban ]

noun

, Digital Technology.

1. the suppressing from public view of a social media post or posts by platform moderators, without notifying the user who published the content, usually in response to a violation of the platform’s terms of service.

Other Words From

• shad·ow-ban shad·ow ban shad·ow·ban verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of shadow ban¹

First recorded in 2015–20

Example Sentences

Tran’s partner, Siege Gary, is also a comic and their support, love and encouragement helped Tran keep posting regularly throughout the pandemic and not get put off by social media’s tendency to overly censor trans and queer creators and covertly “shadow ban” her posts if — no when — we get reported by right-wing and/or religious trolls; a shadow ban massively restricts how many views our posts might get.

From Los Angeles Times

In the second thread, Weiss implied that the files show that Twitter discriminated against prominent right-wing pundits such as Dan Bongino, Charlie Kirk, and Chaya “Libs of TikTok” Raichik, even as company executives claimed that they “certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.”

From Slate

“And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.”

From Washington Times

“And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.”

From Washington Times

Elon @elonmusk, since you’re all for free speech, maybe unban RT and Sputnik accounts and take the shadow ban off mine as well?

From Washington Post