The X app, formerly known as Twitter, is where conversations happen.
X is a town square for everyone where you can post content and follow your interests.
Stay updated on the latest news, go live with Spaces, and direct message people.
Subscribe to X Premium to increase your reach, get verified, and more.
You can earn a living with paid subscriptions and monetize your content with ads.
That said, a common issue that creators face is the Twitter/X shadowban.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to know or check if you are shadowbanned on Twitter/X on iOS, Android, or PC.
What is an X shadowban?
An X shadowban is a temporary ban that decreases your reach on the platform.
There are different types of shadowbans—Search Suggestion ban, Search Ban, Ghost Ban, Reply Deboosting, and more.
Search bans basically hides your account from the search results when someone searches for your name or username.
A ghost ban decreases the reach of your posts while reply deboosting will mark all of your replies as “sensitive content”.
Editor’s note: I was shadowbanned on X and my reply impressions went from 1M/day to close to zero—all of my replies were marked as “sensitive content” and hidden from others.
How to check if you are shadowbanned on Twitter
To check if you are shadowbanned on Twitter (now known as X), log in to another account, search for “from:username” and see if there are any search results.
If there are no search results, it means that you’re hard shadowbanned—the reach of your posts and replies are deboosted.
Other ways include checking the replies or searching for your username of your main account using another account.
You can also check your X analytics to see if there’s a huge decrease in the number of impressions.
Editor’s note: Don’t third-party tools to check if you’re shadowbanned, they usually don’t work and are not accurate.
Method 1: Search for “from:username”
- Log in to another account on Twitter/X.
- Search for “from:username” (e.g. from:notlhw).
- If there are no search results, it means that you’re hard shadowbanned.
Reason: A hard shadowban can happen due to multiple reasons—violation of community guidelines, your tweets are reported, NSFW posts/replies, and others.
Note: For this method to work, your other account cannot be following your main account.
Method 2: Check the replies using another account
- Log in to another account on Twitter/X.
- Navigate to a tweet your main account recently replied to.
- Check if you can see your main account’s reply.
- If you can’t see your main account’s reply, scroll to the bottom of the comments section.
- Tap on “Show” to show additional replies.
- If the reply is shown under additional replies, it means that your account’s replies are deboosted.
Reason: This ban can happen if you reply too much or include NSFW text/media in your replies.
Note: For this method to work, your other account cannot be following your main account.
Method 3: Search for your username using another account
- Log in to another account on Twitter/X.
- Search for your username (e.g. notlhw).
- If your account does not show up in the search results, it means that your account has a search ban.
Reason: A search ban typically happens because your tweets contain NSFW content.
Note: For this method to work, your other account cannot be following your main account.
Method 4: Check your analytics on X
- Use the web version of Twitter (x.com).
- Log in to Twitter/X using the account that you think is shadowbanned.
- Home > More > Premium > Analytics.
- Select “Access your Post Analytics”.
- Compare your day-to-day impressions.
- If you notice a huge drop in the number of impressions (e.g. from 1M to 10k), it probably means that you’re shadowbanned.
Editor’s note: My reply impressions went from 1M to almost zero in one day—I first noticed the shadowban when I saw that I received close to zero new notifications on my replies (likes, retweets, etc.).
Further reading
How to Fix “Please wait a few moments then try again” on Twitter
