Businessman Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter and became CEO, announced an update that allows users to check the status of their accounts by themselves, such as whether they are being 'shadowed'.
After the update, Twitter users will be able to see if their account has been subject to a so-called "shadowban", and if so, why, as well as provide a way to appeal.
Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
"Shadowban" is a slang term that refers to a state where an account can be accessed and tweeted, that is, the account is not suspended / banned, but the tweets and account are not visible or difficult to find by others. It is not a Twitter term in particular, and may refer to equivalent measures used in various other SNS, bulletin boards, comment sections, etc.
Suspended/banned does not acknowledge the existence of shadowban until the end, but there is a mechanism to rate the ease of display on he platform and reach (how far it spreads), and "ranking" limits reach depending on the behavior of the account. I admit that I was doing
Even though I said it differently, I was shadowbanned! It's not unreasonable to be accused of that, but "Shadowban" itself is not a term on Twitter's side, and it does not have a strict definition.
As for Twitter, "you can tweet but "completely'' cannot be seen by other people, which is called a shadowban. Or, you can see it from the profile of the user who posted it.”
If you can't see it unless you look for it from the profile screen, it feels like it doesn't exist, but anyway, this is the explanation.
On the other hand, from the side of the user who is absolutely unforgiving of Twitter, it may not be included in the suggestion candidates in the search, or it may be difficult to see with the "home'' display, which selects and remixes the tweets that were originally the main "algorithm''. There was a subtle difference between being included in a shadowban.
Regarding "ranking", in order to make the timeline highly relevant to users (statement), in other words, as an algorithm introduced to earn the number of impressions including advertisements and engagement, follow-follow relationships Tweets from accounts that are close to you, or tweets that have collected Likes, are more likely to be displayed, and conversely, tweets that have been blocked, muted, or reported for rule violations by many users are less likely to be displayed.
Elon Musk has tweeted that he will be able to casually check the "Shadowban" situation, which means that he will be able to see the current rank in this limited reach situation. It seems.
Elon Musk, who claims to be a free speech absolutist and has revived his once-frozen accounts one after another, would probably declare that the Shadowban was a fraudulent operation by the former Twitter management and will never be repeated. However, in the future, we have clearly declared that shadowbans or “reach restrictions” will be implemented on a tweet-by-tweet basis.
This is related to the revival of the frozen account mentioned above, and the new Twitter policy states that "freedom of expression is not freedom of reach", and negative tweets and hateful remarks (instead of freezing the account) are maximum. It explains that the rank is lowered to the maximum (max deboost), and that it will not be seen unless it is intentionally searched for.
I still don't know what exactly "can't find unless you look for it", but it can be interpreted as referring to the conventional so-called shadow ban, which can't be seen unless you follow the list of tweets from the profile screen.
"We will be able to confirm the shadowban status'' is a declaration that "I have shadowbanned and will continue to do so'', but being able to confirm the reason is big progress.
The big problem with so-called shadowbangs is not so much that your reach and exposure are limited, but that you don't know if you're in that state, why it happened, or how you can recover.
Earon Mask's policy of "I will not erase hate remarks or freeze accounts, but I will shadowban'' policy will fall in the future, whether followers who have praised and believed that they are the patron saints of freedom of expression will not be treated as traitors, Twitter income I don't know yet whether it will reassure the advertising companies that make up the majority of the ads, or whether it will dodge the pressure from distribution platforms such as the App Store and politics, but I can check my status without using an external checker and understand the cause. , It is a great progress if the destination to sue is prepared.