Meaning of shadowban | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To ban a user from a community without their knowledge, allowing them to continue reading and commenting, but rendering their contributions invisible or less visible to other users.
   Internet, transitive
2. To filter out results without the publisher's knowledge.
   Internet, transitive

Equivalents

Examples

“On Wednesday a Vice News story reported that some senior Republican officials were not visible in automatic search results. Vice framed this as “shadow banning” without providing any evidence that it was deliberate.”

“Over the weekend, Sweeney tweeted that his account had been shadowbanned, meaning that its visibility had been deliberately reduced.”

“You can also use external software designed to check for shadowbanning.”

“On Tuesday, Ghostwriter returned with a new track, titled “Whiplash,” this time using A.I. vocal filters to sound like the rappers Travis Scott and 21 Savage and deliver a message to the industry: “Me and Writer raise a toast,” the A.I. version of 21 Savage raps. “Trying to shadowban my boy/but you can’t kill a ghost.””

CEFR level