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TEXXR

Chronicles

The story behind the story

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Elon Musk says Twitter is working on an update that will show users if they've been “shadowbanned”, the reason why, and how to appeal

Nick Turner / Bloomberg :

Bloomberg Nick Turner

Context & Ripple Effects

The proposed feature sits within Musk's early effort to recast Twitter's enforcement posture after plans to take the CEO role and reverse some lifetime bans. It turns a disputed moderation outcome into a status users can inspect and contest.

Twitter had previously locked down product updates amid takeover uncertainty, making a user-facing moderation tool a notable change in how enforcement decisions are exposed.

First-order effects

  • Twitter users would gain a way to see whether account distribution has been limited, the stated reason, and an appeal route.
  • Twitter’s moderation operation would need to surface reason codes and support an appeal process for the restrictions covered by the update.

Second-order effects

  • Public explanations and appeals make Twitter’s enforcement decisions easier for affected users to challenge, increasing pressure for consistent application of its rules.
  • The tool would make moderation transparency part of Twitter’s product experience rather than leaving visibility limits solely as an internal enforcement decision.

Third-order effects

  • If implemented broadly, the change points toward social platforms treating ranking and distribution penalties as contestable account actions, alongside overt bans.
  • Musk’s planned reversal of selected lifetime bans and a shadowban-appeal feature together indicate a governance model centered more on visible enforcement outcomes and user recourse.

The trend: Twitter is moving toward making account-reach restrictions more legible and appealable as Musk reshapes its moderation policies.

Discussion

  • @elonmusk Elon Musk on x
    Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you've been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal
  • @bendreyfuss Ben Dreyfuss on x
    I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. This might be the definition of shadowbanning that some people use, but it is explicitly not the definition that Twitter was using in that blog post https://twitter.com/...
  • @esesci @esesci on x
    so, this change removes shadowbanning. that means the offenders would cycle identities faster, reducing the effectiveness of blocks and hindering perceived site quality. it might have macro consequences. https://twitter.com/...
  • @mmasnick Mike Masnick on x
    Just highlighting that if you were, you know, paying attention to all this stuff, this was all well known. (Check the date). https://twitter.com/...
  • @binarybits Timothy B. Lee on x
    I think part of the reason @bariweiss's scoop has been so polarizing is that the right and left each had well-established definitions of the term “shadow-ban,” but they weren't the same. https://twitter.com/...
  • @hughhewitt Hugh Hewitt on x
    It is a publicly traded company whose executives testified to Congress and which made public statements and SEC filings on which investors relied. If you minimize any fraud in the filings or deception in testimony, you are encouraging every company to do the same. https://twitter…
  • @austincarr Austin Carr on x
    This would be a healthy feature, depending on implementation. If Elon's mission is to make Twitter “by far the most accurate source of information about the world,” it'll be a fine line between his T&S policies and creating a SF-based Ministry of Truth https://twitter.com/...
  • @mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x
    To “shadow ban” is obviously not a term with a firmly established legal definition but when Old Regime Twitter officially denied shadowbanning they offered a specific, narrowly framed definition that seems consistent with New Regime Twitter's revelations. https://twitter.com/...
  • @austincarr Austin Carr on x
    Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants. @elonmusk, will you commit to making public any list of accounts you de-amplify going forward? With reasons for “strike” counts? Or if you have another system to control “free speech vs. free reach,” how will you be transparent? h…
  • @normative Julian Sanchez on x
    Also it would be very weird to deny Twitter does deamplification given that they've openly said they do it for years, and it's been widely reported on in the mainstream press. Whether they do it in a biased way is another question. https://twitter.com/...
  • @kevinmkruse Kevin M. Kruse on x
    “Shadowbanning” means making a user's tweets visible only to the user themselves, and no one else. “De-amplifying” is not the same thing, no matter how much people want to move the goalposts now. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
  • @steventdennis Steven Dennis on x
    Hundreds of millions of users and a couple thousand workers. Who is going to handle these appeals? https://twitter.com/...
  • @cwarzel @cwarzel on x
    and of course none of that matters. if it's packaged and sold as a secret revelation it will be taken as an investigatory revelation. doesn't matter that musk has mentioned instituting a similar policy as far back as Nov 18th as the one mentioned in the “we don't shadow ban” post…
  • @hkanji Hussein Kanji on x
    This happened to me at Facebook three or four times so I deleted the app and switched to Twitter https://twitter.com/...
  • @martinsfp @martinsfp on x
    The second instalment of ‘the Twitter Files’ was largely more hand-wavy misrepresentation of normal moderation processes with no evidence of the ideological bias that it clearly wanted to show... but this sounds like a good feature. https://twitter.com/...
  • @miltonwolfmd Milton Wolf on x
    Why would anyone need to appeal to @Twitter to eliminate their shadow ban, @elonmusk? Especially since Twitter claimed it didn't happen in the first place. Shouldn't Twitter just eliminate all shadow bans (and inform those affected)? https://twitter.com/...
  • @tedlieu Ted Lieu on x
    Dear MAGA folks: This is Twitter asserting its right to ban you. Or not. Or to promote cute cat videos over posts by @bariweiss. Or to have “Twitter files”. Or to accelerate posts about the Browns. Or decelerate posts about kale. Twitter is a business. Get it? https://twitter.com…
  • @shefvaidya Shefali Vaidya. on x
    Much needed. My reach used to be in 1000s of RTs, it has been down to tens now, follower count has been reducing, despite new follower notifications every day. Vijaya Gadde and Co were toxic haters! @elonmusk https://twitter.com/...
  • @lexfridman Lex Fridman on x
    @elonmusk This is amazing. Increased transparency is great for everyone.
  • @sanjeevsanyal Sanjeev Sanyal on x
    In other words, shadow banning is real....... https://twitter.com/...
  • @seanmdav Sean Davis on x
    So we are going to have to “appeal” to the same bureaucracy responsible for improperly shadow-banning us (and then lying about it for years)? How about running a single line of code that just removes the shadow-bans immediately? Justice delayed is justice denied... https://twitte…