What is shadowbanning? Why social media may be hiding your posts. - The Washington Post:

We asked Washington Post readers to share their stories about “shadowbans," the real or perceived suppression of a person’s posts, and many suspected that their posts were being shown to friends but hidden on feeds. Few had proof this was happening.

Good read. Not to get too conspiratorial, but I have often wondered about the existence of a shared blackball list—specifically, a list of “content creators” who are critical of big tech in a way that threatens their business.

There’s a dividing line—before the list and after. Creators who found an audience before the list are less likely to get delisted from the algorithm. Smaller creators after the list was in place are all but guaranteed never to find an audience.

How my content performs outside of big social media, and even now, Bluesky, compared to the open web and true decentralized social media like Mastodon, is night and day. Without that comparison, I would have chalked it up to cope. But looking at the numbers, it’s hard to ignore.

Such a list is currently impossible to prove without a whistleblower, but my bet is that it exists and is shared between companies.