Have you been posting many comments on YouTube? Have you been posting comments that may infringe YouTube’s ToS or guidelines? There is a high probability that you have been shadowbanned by YouTube.
In this article I will explain what is YouTube’s comment shadowban, how to find out whether you have been shadowbanned or not & what to do if you find out that you have been shadowbanned.
What is the YouTube comment shadowban?
Shadowban in general is a lighter form of ban. The main difference between being banned and shadowbanned is that shadowbanned person doesn’t know that he has been shadowbanned.
Shadowbanned person won’t get any notification stating that he infringed the guidelines and now some of his actions on YouTube are restricted.
If person gets shadowbanned, then his comments won’t be visible to public, however, he will still see comments and may think that they are visible to everybody. It is done with the purpose.
It takes time for shadowbanned person to find out that he has been shadowbanned. Meanwhile, YouTube’s staff gets extra time to evaluate person’s actions while shadowbanned person keeps spamming in comments but users on YouTube do not see any of his comments.
It is done with the purpose to protect social community from spammers and abusers.
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How to know if your YouTube comments have been shadowbanned?
YouTube mostly shadowbans users who are spamming (advertising) in the comments section, writing several identical comments or writing comments that are abusive or infringe YouTube’s guidelines in other ways.
You can find out whether your comment have been shadowbanned by doing a simple test.
You just need to log out from your YouTube account and check the video you left your comment on while logged out.
If you can see your comment there, it means that you haven’t been shadowbanned. However, if you can’t see your comment while logged out, it means that your comment was hidden from public view and you have been shadowbanned.
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What to do if you have been shadowbanned?
There is a positive side to shadowbans too. They are always temporary, usually lasting no more than a day or two. If you have been shadowbanned, you need to stop doing what you have been doing and give your YouTube account a rest.
If you continue spamming in comments or doing any other activity against YouTube’s ToS, then your account will stay shadowbanned till you stop such actions.
That’s the beauty of shadowban compared to a standard ban, you don’t need to submit any request to YouTube or ask to remove ban, you just need to do nothing for a while! So, be patient and shadowban will be removed automatically.
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I hope that your comments weren’t shadowbanned. However, if you have been shadowbanned, at least now you know what you should do to be unbanned.
If you have any more questions, leave a comment below!
17 comments. Leave new
Well I got shadow banned for posting references to an article a video was about.
The video was about Fake “health” reports on Facebook. It mentioned several examples. I located where one of the source of misinformation was because I was aware of it. I provided a reference to the source as well as two references to legitimate WHO peer-reviewed reports about a failure in medical application of vaccines for polio which resulted in more virulent strains of polio than the wild-type, which is almost extinct.
I can only guess because one of the articles had the words “Vaccine” and “Bill Gates” in the subject matter automatically I was shadow banned. For attempting to inform the public about the originating source of misinformation, so that they can make their own investigation, I was penalized.
It seems the Terms of Service of Youtube is quite restrictive. I had only made four comments on Youtube in my life. I would not call that spamming.
I got shadowbanned for offending some Trump trolls with reality and experience I guess. Apparently YouTube is fine with legit abusive or threatening comments though. They let those stand. I post a comment anywhere else, even offering condolences or support to a nonpolitical video…my comment is gone after refreshing about 16-30 seconds later. I recorded it several times just so I can prove this is an ongoing issue that YouTube is even more abusive with. The platform is so flawless and allows abusive content stand, but shadow bans other comments calling out bots and trolls spamming or even threatening myself/others.
I am not going to continue paying for Premium if YouTube is going to keep this up. It needs addressed and needs fixing or by the end of the month…I will revoke all 5 memberships I’m currently paying for.
I am too at Zan Omg shadowbanned because i shared a Link to my Channel to grow it up. Should i do nothing, also no posts or no comments at Zan’s Videos?
This article reads like shadownbanning is a good thing. How the hell is silencing anyone a good thing??????
This concept is ultimately more oppressive than it is helpful, and I fear it’s only going to get worse the more terms or sentence structures they decide dont belong. This slow creeping totalitarian policing that’s been going on is making me wonder if the only thing we’re going to have left to communicate with is fuckin emojis.
I was shadowbanned for commenting that not every symbol of a fish in the first century was necessarily evidence of Christianity; that maybe non-Christians may also have drawn fish. It was a comment on a comment. How was that offensive? You Tube has lots of videos which are critical of Christianity. I just questioned whether a claimed historical theory had enough evidence behind it.
I get shadow banned. Meanwhile, I’m reading comments that are far worse and inflammatory with a zillion likes next to it…
I got shadow banned for protesting censorship on the Oscars dead channel. Shadowbans are grossly unethical because youtube should not be restricting freedom of speech in the first place, so they should not be evaluating comments in the first place. Welcome to 1984. I hate corporations. Google ruined youtube.
free speech means you cant be imprisoned. technically youtube can refuse service to anyone, you agree to TOS when you sign up.
The reasons for a “hard ban” are getting more and more nebulous but I think that for the most part it is the AI… but saying it’s an AI preventing me from reaching other subscribers gives me no comfort whatsoever.
Yah it is personal. Don’t go getting too excited and commenting on something you find too interesting.
You might consider that on bitchute and anothertube are getting more mature as this censorship continues but I’m sure you know those exist by now.
The thing is… I PAY for youtube. I elect to pay because It’s worth enough for me not to see ads to pay them a nominal fee. Considering the 20hrs+ a week I watch or listen it’s a fair price. Their music service is also much better than google play ever was. I don’t want this to sound like a commercial but it is a fantastic service with countless hours of instructional videos that we can use to learn almost anything. What they seem to have forgotten is that enough people are getting fed up with capricious and arbitrary enforcement of TOS that they are actually driving innovation.
I don’t expect everything to be free. You pay, or you pay by being fed ads. If something is free… YOU are the product.
I’m recently begun having difficulty posting in the dialog box of truth sites comment with other truth links attached. I’ve been sharing info this way for more than a year, but more since covid, and then editing if it even posts can be impossible. Get an error failed to post message.
So I back door it, I post comments and add c above then post, then open new box add link then post, that often works.
Not sure if this is shadow ban, or in house change, or flagged truth sites ti prevent sharing.
I didn’t post any links in my comments. I was shadowbanned, but I had only just made an account and made two comments. At most my account had only been active about 2 hours. Nothing I said was abusive either. It isn’t really fair that YouTube can shut down your account so easily and quickly, especially without good reason.
Anyway, i of someone flags your post does that automatically shadowban you? Also after the shadowban “ends,” does the comment that was hidden reappear to the public?
I think I do somehow got band by YT since I post something that they can’t handle. I tried to look from another perspective and found out that I got shadowbanned since I was saying the truth that they didn’t want people to hear. But I still think that they were afraid of the power that we have and who we are as a person.
I only felt sorry for them since they don’t value the truth, and they only value their tiny little world. I had asked myself a lot of times and I wonder what had caused these things to happen.
And I wish people light, love, healing, and clarity. In the name of the god, sun and the holy ghost, I divinely bless and protect all of you.
Shadowbanned for feminist content.
My skater xl video game channel wad shadow banned. I suggested that canada has a high emigration rate.
I had the same account for 7 years and then after the 2020 election/Jan 6 “incident” , magically the “non-truths” being perpetrated by establishment channels like ABC CBS NBC that I challenged, I was shadowbanned. I use hardly ANY curse words, don’t threaten, or name call other than douchbag or rat. But are we not grownups? Do we not have FREEDOM of speech aka 1st amendment??? YouTube aka Google aka Alphabet is the best example of ANTITRUST VIOLATORS. Free speech nazis.
I follow a Thai gamer youtube channel; usually I don’t comment on his videos because I felt I had nothing to say. But he posted a gameplay of a Star Wars game, which I admire. He makes a mention of Mace Windu when selecting indigo as his lightsaber color (this was before I edited the comment to see if anything different would happen) – my original comment was: “Isn’t Mace Windu’s lightsaber a deep purple?”. And I left that comment there since 2019. I didn’t think anything of it. I come back to rewatch the gameplay after *2 years* on my other YouTube account, and I couldn’t find my comment anywhere — this specific channel says he will only ban trolls who tells him what to do or what items he has to pick up in the game; and all I asked was a rhetorical question – I didn’t expect anyone to agree with me.
I’m not so much bothered, but confused as to why my comment was either shadowbanned or blocked, because I wasn’t trying to be a troll. That’s why I edited it my comment to see if anything would change — if nothing happens then I won’t be bothered. I will continue to support this gamer channel even if my comments won’t ever reach him.
I just wanna know what happened.