What is a Shadowban?

A shadowban is the belief that a platform has quietly limited your reach without notifying you. While platforms rarely confirm shadowbans, creators use the term when views drop dramatically despite consistent publishing.

Possible Causes of Reach Drops

• Violating community guidelines or copyright policies
• Sudden change in content topics, formats, or posting cadence
• Low engagement from your audience—weak hooks or stale offers
• Using banned hashtags, spammy CTAs, or misleading copy
• Platform experiments or algorithm updates outside your control

How to Respond

• Audit recent posts for guideline violations or poor metrics
• Focus on value-packed content with strong [viral hooks](</glossary/viral-hook>)
• Engage directly with your community through lives, stories, or comments
• Diversify traffic with email, SEO, and organic marketing
• Keep documentation—screenshots, data trends—in case you appeal to platform support

Prevention Tips

• Review platform policies regularly and respect disclosure requirements
• Rotate hashtags and captions instead of copy-pasting
• Maintain consistent branding so the algorithm recognizes your niche
• Balance real-time trendjacks with evergreen asset creation
• Build owned channels so a rumored shadowban doesn’t stall your entire business