Twitter (Nearly) Admits That Shadow Banning Exists

Twitter Nearly Admits That Shadow Banning Exists

A little over a month ago, several US Politicians, including the President, accused Twitter of showing a political bias by what they referred to as shadow banning accounts. What this term meant that that accounts were not being outright banned, but were having their reach and influence affected.

Well, in a report via the BBC, it seems that they may have been right as Twitter has (almost) admitted that Shadow Banning was a real thing! It’s not their fault though!

When In Doubt – Blame The Algorithm

In the report, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has admitted that due to failures in the system’s algorithm around 600,000 accounts were affected with limited reach. As such, the site and the way posts were spread was not “impartial”. Although he avoided using the term ‘shadow ban’ it appears that Donald Trump might have been right after all!

Who Has Been Affected?

Following the announcement and the confirmation that several members of the US Government were affected by this, many have called for specifics to identify whether those affected were primarily Republican or Democrats. Sadly, Twitter has refused to reveal that information. I daresay though that it could put to bed the rumours of these ‘shadow bans’ being deliberate. Their silence is, therefore, a bit suspicious to say the least.

Given that they did initially deny it, it seems a bit lazy now to just blame the algorithm. Albeit, it’s a good go-to excuse that worked for a lot of other companies. Why not them too?

Just to be clear though, there has been no admission from Twitter that any instance of this was deliberate or targeted.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!