Students in Delhi continue to protest the alleged NEET exam paper leak. These demonstrators want accountability. They are also demanding the resignation of the Union Education Minister. However, a new struggle is growing online. An Instagram creator named Apoorva Mudgal shared photos and videos of the Delhi protests. She soon noticed a huge drop in her post views. She claims the platform muffled her voice without warning.
Mudgal’s followers could not see her updates from the protest. Other online users reported the same problem. They found that their posts about the Delhi protest received very few likes. The app even labeled some posts as sensitive content. This label hides the posts from new people. This problem has made the term shadowban popular online.
What is a shadowban?
A shadowban is when a social media app limits the reach of a user’s content. The app does not delete the account. The user can still post and write comments. However, the app’s computer system stops showing their posts to new people. The posts do not appear on search pages or hashtag feeds. This makes it hard for new followers to find the account.
How social media apps handle these claims
Tech companies like Meta and other platforms do not use the term shadowban. They say they only follow their rules to keep users safe. They explain that content reach drops because of normal changes in their computer systems. However, users often notice clear signs of a shadowban. Their likes and comments suddenly drop. Also, their posts do not show up when people search for hashtags.
