What is a shadowban on X (Twitter)?
A shadowban is any restriction that hides your posts from people who do not follow you, without telling you. Here are the four kinds and how to tell them apart.
A shadowban is a restriction that makes your account or posts harder for other people to find, while everything looks normal to you. You can still post, reply and like. Your followers usually still see you. What changes is your reach to everyone else: search, suggestions, reply threads and recommendations.
X does not use the word "shadowban". Its own policy calls this visibility filtering and describes the principle as "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach": instead of removing a post, X can limit who sees it. Some of these limits come with a label on the post ("Visibility limited"). Many do not, which is why people go looking for a checker.
The four restrictions FSB tests
| Restriction | What is hidden | Who notices |
|---|---|---|
| Search ban | Your posts do not appear in search results, even for an exact from:yourhandle search | People searching for a topic you posted about |
| Search suggestion ban | Your account does not appear in the search box's autocomplete | People typing your name or handle |
| Ghost ban (reply ban) | Your replies are hidden from the thread for everyone else | Anyone reading the conversation you replied to |
| Reply deboosting | Your replies are pushed behind "Show more replies" or "probable spam" | Readers who do not expand the hidden section |
They are independent. An account can have a suggestion ban without a search ban, or deboosted replies with everything else clean. That is why FSB shows four separate results instead of one yes-or-no verdict.
What a shadowban is not
- A suspension. Suspended accounts show "Account suspended" to everyone. That is not hidden.
- A lock or temporary restriction. If X asks you to verify a phone number or tells you some features are limited for a few hours, that is a notice, not a shadowban.
- A quiet week. Reach goes up and down for normal reasons: posting time, topics, fewer people online. A drop in likes alone does not mean you are restricted. Test first.
- The sensitive-media flag. Media marked sensitive is hidden behind a warning for many viewers, and it can keep posts out of search for people with "hide sensitive content" on. FSB reports it separately because it is a setting you can often change yourself. See the sensitive media guide.
Why X does it
X ranks and filters posts to reduce spam, manipulation and rule-breaking content. The signals that trigger filtering are not published in full, but the patterns are well known: bursts of identical replies, mass following and unfollowing, many reports or blocks, links to sites flagged for spam, and posting the same hashtags over and over. New accounts with no profile photo, bio or verified phone get filtered more easily.
How to check
- Open FSB and type the handle (or paste a profile link).
- FSB runs the four tests from a logged-out view, which is how search engines and people who do not follow you see the account.
- Read each result. Anything marked Detected is active right now.
No password, no app permissions and no login are needed. If something is detected, read how to fix a shadowban.
Check an account
Four live tests from a logged-out view. No password, no app permissions.
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