Shadow Banning - Social Media and the Illusion of Free Speech

Today I did some research on a practice called shadow banning. This is something many of the social media sites do to filter what they consider trolling or spam. Most of this is probably good and people don't want to see spam and such. However, it is also a tool that can be used to manipulate what viewpoints people see on line. The reason it's called shadow banning is because the people who have been banned still get to post stuff and their friends still see it. However their content is excluded from anyone searching for it. So if for example you made a statement about a religious topic that the Social media filters didn't like they can prevent your comment from being seen by anyone outside your group.

So if you think your message will have an impact by posting it on social media you may be mistaken.

Now this is not some violation of any rule they are allowed to do what ever they like they own the media platform. If they want to exclude any discussion or photos of ugly turtle neck sweaters they can do that. If that's what you talk about often they will filter you.

The manipulation of free speech is nothing new, historically the media in all its forms has been a tool of deception and propaganda, it gives the illusion that it is the voice of truth, but it is the truth the owner of that media wants you to have.

There are some methods to find out if you have been shadow banned on the various platforms, and if your curious about it you can search for them. You should be aware of this practice. Don't think that you are getting your message out just because you post it on social media. It is no substitute for really going out and speaking to other people.