shadow ban
verb
variants
or shadowban
or less commonly shadow-ban
shadow banned or shadowbanned also shadow-banned; shadow banning or shadowbanning also shadow-banning; shadow bans or shadowbans also shadow-bans
: to cause (a user or their content) to be hidden from some or all other users usually without the user's knowledge
Users, the plea explains, will not have any way to know whether or not they have been shadow banned unless they experience a decrease in the audience reach of their posts/tweets.—
Debayan Roy
Debayan RoyBlack creators on TikTok claim the popular social media app is still "shadow banning" their content—despite the company's pledge to better support creators of color …—Meira Gebel
Meira GebelHow can you know if a post isn't getting shared because it's been shadowbanned or because it isn't very good?—Geoffrey A. Fowler
Geoffrey A. FowlerWe do not shadowban anyone based on political ideology.—Jack Dorsey, quoted in Wired
Jack Dorsey, quoted in WiredThis includes shadow-banning accounts to reduce their visibility …—Rounak Jain
Rounak Jain
shadowban
noun
or shadow ban
or less commonly shadow-ban
plural shadowbans or shadow bans also shadow-bans
The shadowban is useful in that rather than someone immediately being locked out and possibly retaliating by, for example, making a new account, the user fades away gradually due to the lack of interaction from other users.
—Adi Robertson
Adi Robertson
Instead of banning a user outright and informing them of such punishment, a shadowban makes a user's post visible only to themselves.
—Brian Feldman
Brian Feldman
Allowing a user to continue to post to a forum but limiting who can actually see those posts is commonly known as a shadow ban …
—Dieter Bohn
Dieter Bohn
Examples of shadow ban in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The left started this with shadow banning and deplatforming social media influencers.
—Alex Gangitano, The Hill, 20 Sep. 2025
Some observers say that Algeria has enacted a shadow ban on French wheat—as of January, a single shipment had entered the country in the past year, compared with the usual millions of tons.
—Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 2 June 2025
For instance, the Twitter Files exposed alarming ways in which our nation’s intelligence agencies pressured social media companies to censor or shadow ban information.
—Michael Ashley, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
Possibly done as an attempt to skirt shadow bans, these users (and presumably some bots) began to employ the word as captions to promote their own clips.
—Mikelle Street, Them, 4 Oct. 2024
That apparent contradiction may be why shadow ban discourse flared up again this past week.
—Aja Romano, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
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Alex Gangitano, The Hill, 20 Sep. 2025
Some observers say that Algeria has enacted a shadow ban on French wheat—as of January, a single shipment had entered the country in the past year, compared with the usual millions of tons.
—Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 2 June 2025
For instance, the Twitter Files exposed alarming ways in which our nation’s intelligence agencies pressured social media companies to censor or shadow ban information.
—Michael Ashley, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
Possibly done as an attempt to skirt shadow bans, these users (and presumably some bots) began to employ the word as captions to promote their own clips.
—Mikelle Street, Them, 4 Oct. 2024
That apparent contradiction may be why shadow ban discourse flared up again this past week.
—Aja Romano, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Shadow ban.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shadow%20ban. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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