What is 'shadow banning', and what is Trump accusing Twitter of?

Experts suggested the trolls were using vaccination as a 'wedge issue' to promote discord in American society. (REUTERS)

The issue of online "shadow banning" has once again provoked a major debate about free speech and censorship, after US President Donald Trump accused Twitter of silencing Republicans.

Shadow banning essentially means that a user of Twitter or any other online forum is not actually banned outright. Instead, all of their posts are made only visible to themselves.

For example, if a Twitter user was shadow banned, they would still be able to see their tweets but no one else would. The idea is to limit the reach of a user without them being aware that they have been silenced – potentially preventing them from retaliating against the moderators responsible for the ban.

The secrecy involved in a shadow ban has made it a favourite topic of conspiracy theorists, including the far-right news site InfoWars. The mouthpiece of controversial figure Alex Jones has consistently accused Twitter of applying shadow bans on high-profile Republicans. On Thursday 26 July, Trump waded into the debate.

1. What has Trump accused Twitter of?

   Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to accuse Twitter of "shadow banning" prominent Republicans.

   "We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once!" Trump said. "Many Complaints."

   His tweet followed a report from Vice News that claimed Twitter is limiting the visibility of several Republicans, including Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel.

   A review by the publication found that Democrats were not being shadow banned in the same way, with all subjects tested appearing in drop-down search results on the social media platform.

2. What does Twitter say about it?

   Trump's latest tweet came just a day after Twitter Product Lead Kayvon Beykpour took to the platform to reiterate Twitter's stance on behavioural ranking.

   He said that Twitter does have a system that ranks users according to the healthiness of their conversations, and that more problematic accounts could be hidden as a consequence. But that system "doesn't make judgements based on political views or the substance of tweets."

   Beykpour linked to testimony provided to Congress on the issue last week. which stated that Twitter's rules are based on problematic behaviours rather than the actual content of tweets or a Twitter user's ideology.

   Twitter uses a combination of user reports and machine learning technology to determine what content is "problematic" on its platform.

   "When evaluating these reports, we take into account a variety of factors and context, including whether the behavior is directed at an individual, a group, or a protected category of people," Twitter's testimony stated.

   "We also take into account whether the user has a history of violating our policies as well as the severity of the violation."

3. So is shadow banning real?

   Shadow banning in the sense that Trump is accusing Twitter of is not real. Any posts that are demoted are not done so purely because of a user's political affiliation.

   Instead, any filtering of a user or their posts is a result of them publishing content that flouts Twitter's rules, or interacting with other accounts that do. Therefore, the Republicans cited in Vice News' report were potentially posting content that went against Twitter's policies or were interacting with problematic accounts.

   Twitter appears to have responded to accusations from right-wing figures, with InfoWars editor Paul Watson revealing on Thursday that his account was once again appearing at the top of search results.

   "Can confirm I've been restored to the first result when I search my name," Watson tweeted. "Thank you @jack [Dorsey, Twitter CEO] for addressing the problem."