shadowban

• shadow ban, shadow-ban

shadow +‎ ban

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃædoʊbæn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃædəʊbæn/

shadowban (third-person singular simple present shadowbans, present participle shadowbanning, simple past and past participle shadowbanned)

1. (transitive, Internet) To ban a user from a community without their knowledge, allowing them to continue reading and commenting, but rendering their contributions invisible or less visible to other users.
   • 2018 July 27, Jason Wilson, “What is 'shadow banning', and why did Trump tweet about it?”, in The Guardian‎:

     On Wednesday a Vice News story reported that some senior Republican officials were not visible in automatic search results. Vice framed this as “shadow banning” without providing any evidence that it was deliberate.

   • 2022 December 14, Maya Yang, “Twitter suspends account that monitors flight paths of Elon Musk’s private jet”, in The Guardian‎:

     Over the weekend, Sweeney tweeted that his account had been shadowbanned, meaning that its visibility had been deliberately reduced.

2. (transitive, Internet, of a search engine) To filter out results without the publisher's knowledge.

• ghostban
• hellban
• stealthban

shadowban (plural shadowbans)

1. (Internet) An instance of shadowbanning.

   Synonym: hellban

   • 2018 July 27, Jason Wilson, “What is 'shadow banning', and why did Trump tweet about it?”, in The Guardian‎:

     Is there any basis for the idea that conservatives are being targeted for shadow bans? No – at least not based on what Vice purported to show.