Elon Musk Revealed Twitter’s New Update "Shadow Banned"

In contrast to an outright ban on content or profiles, a "shadow ban" refers to reducing the visibility or partially blocking a user's posts from appearing on searches and popular suggestions. Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has disclosed that the company is working on a new update to let users know if they are "shadow banned." In other words, the practice somewhat respects the right of freedom of speech, but it practically renders their posts redundant as no one can see them. In response to claims made by Bari Weiss, the founder of Free Press, that Twitter staff "build blacklists" to "prevent disfavored tweets from trending," Musk announced the development.

Musk revealed that Twitter is "working on a software update" that will display the "true account status" in a tweet. He said,  "you know clearly if you've been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal."  Earlier this week, Instagram made a similar announcement. However, given that Twitter has previously denied shadow banning, Musk's remark is especially significant. For instance, in a blog post titled "People are asking us if we shadow ban. We do not," former Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde and current Twitter GM (consumer) Kayvon Beykpour strongly denied shadow ban allegations in 2018.

Weiss provided additional information in a long series of tweets, the first of which states: "A new Twitter Files investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics - all in secret, without informing users."  Weiss also claimed that alleges that Twitter placed Stanford's Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who argued that Covid lockdowns would harm chi, on a "blacklist," prevented disfavored tweets from trending, and banned the visibility.