X users are still complaining about arbitrary shadowbanning
Users of Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) continue complaining the platform is engaging in shadowbanning — aka restricting the visibility of posts by applying a “temporary” label to accounts that can limit the reach/visibility of content — without providing clarity over why it’s imposed the sanctions.
Running a search on X for the phrase “temporary label” shows multiple instances of users complaining about being told they’ve been flagged by the platform; and, per an automated notification, that the reach of their content “may” be affected. Many users can be seen expressing confusion as to why they’re being penalized — apparently not having been given a meaningful explanation as to why the platform has imposed restrictions on their content.
Complaints that surface in a search for the phrase “temporary label” show users appear to have received only generic notifications about the reasons for the restrictions — including a vague text in which X states their accounts “may contain spam or be engaging in other types of platform manipulation”.
The notices X provides do not contain more specific reasons, nor any information on when/if the limit will be lifted, nor any route for affected users to appeal against having their account and its contents’ visibility degraded.
“Yikes. I just received a ‘temporary label’ on my account. Does anyone know what this means? I have no idea what I did wrong besides my tweets blowing up lately,” wrote X user, Jesabel (@JesabelRaay), who appears to mostly post about movies, in a complaint Monday voicing confusion over the sanction. “Apparently, people are saying they’ve been receiving this too & it’s a glitch. This place needs to get fixed, man.”
“There’s a temporary label restriction on my account for weeks now,” wrote another X user, Oma (@YouCanCallMeOma), in a public post on March 17. “I have tried appealing it but haven’t been successful. What else do I have to do?”
“So, it seems X has placed a temporary label on my account which may impact my reach. ( I’m not sure how. I don’t have much reach.),” wrote X user, Tidi Grey (@bgarmani) — whose account suggests they’ve been on the platform since 2010 — last week, on March 14. “Not sure why. I post everything I post by hand. I don’t sell anything spam anyone or post questionable content. Wonder what I did.”
The fact these complaints can be surfaced in search results means the accounts’ content still has some visibility. But shadowbanning can encompass a spectrum of actions — with different levels of post downranking and/or hiding potentially being applied. So the term itself is something of a fuzzy label — reflecting the operational opacity it references.
