What Does it Mean to Be Shadow Banned on Reddit?

​Have you ever been banned from a subreddit but didn’t know it? Or posted something and it never showed up on the subreddit? If so, you may have been shadowbanned.

What is a shadow ban? A shadow ban is when your account is banned from a subreddit but you are not notified of the ban. This can happen for a number of reasons, most commonly because you have broken the subreddit’s rules.

​If you’ve been spending time on Reddit, you may have noticed that your posts aren’t getting the same amount of attention as they used to. It can also be that you’ve tried to post something and gotten a message saying that your post has been removed. If this is happening to you, it’s possible that you’ve been shadow banned. If you think you’ve been shadowbanned, you can use this Reddit Shadow Ban Checker. Just enter your username and the subreddit you think you’ve been banned from.

If you’ve been repeatedly breaking the subreddit’s rules, or if you’ve been spamming the community with unwanted content, you may have been banned. In some cases, users have been banned for simply having a history of disagreements with other users.

What to do if you’re Banned?

If you are shadow banned, there’s not much you can do to get un-banned. The best thing to do is to try and figure out why you were banned in the first place, and then avoid doing whatever got you banned in the first place. For example, if you were banned for spamming, make sure to stop spamming and to avoid posting any content that could be considered spam. If you think you were banned unfairly, you can try contacting the subreddit’s moderators to see if they’ll lift the ban. However, in most cases, shadow bans are permanent, so it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get un-banned.

Reddit believes that shadowbanning is an effective way of dealing with problem users. With a regular ban, the user can just create a new account and continue to cause problems. With a shadowban, the user doesn’t know they’ve been banned and so they are less likely to try to circumvent the ban.

Avoid Being Banned!

The best way to avoid being shadowbanned is to follow the rules of the subreddit you are posting in. Each subreddit has its own rules, so make sure you know what they are before you post. If you do break the rules and get shadowbanned, the only way to get un-shadowbanned is to contact the moderators of the subreddit and plead your case.

Shadow bans can be frustrating, but they’re a necessary part of keeping Reddit communities healthy and functioning. If you think you’ve been shadow banned, the best thing to do is to move on and find another community to participate in.