Goodbye!

The test results are not reliable, anymore. Twitter has changed their frontend to use new GraphQL endpoints. To properly test and reflect the behavior of the site, I would have to make those changes to the tests, too. I have no interest in Twitter anymore and moved on to other projects, well over a year ago. Thus, shadowban.eu is down for good. The last version of the code remains available on GitHub

Many thanks to the hundreds of people from all over the world who have donated to us, the past 4 years! You were the ones keeping the servers running. Even though I never answered, I have read all your messages. They kept me going for quite some time, but let's face it: Twitter probably doesn't want you on their platform, so why stay? The newest update to the Twitter media policy prooves once again that you are in a very unhealthy relationship with the service. Year over year, they come up with new methods to shadowban or otherwise "hurt" you. It really feels like the battered wife syndrome, if you think about it: You look and hope for solutions to your problems, only for them to swing an even bigger bat at you. You are and deserve better than that!

Go out and meet or make some real-life friends! Plant a tree and some food! Life is way more beautiul, outside your screen.

Don't worry, don't be afraid! It's just a ride; and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice between fear and love. - Join me in choosing love!

Twitter TOS update and share to test

We've updated the site to reflect Twitter's upcoming changes to their TOS. An important one, since they are now admitting to "lower the visibility" of whom- and whatever they deem fit.

The second part of this update is a really fun one:
You can now install shadowban.eu as an app and use it as a target for "Share" within Twitter.

Twitter Shadowban Test added to your menu
Twitter Shadowban Test in the Android app switcher
Sharing a profile to Twitter Shadowban Test

The install feature is available on all modern browsers. Sharing to the then installed app is sadly only supported by Chrome for Android. All other browsers have not yet implemented that feature; there is nothing we can do about that but wait.

Here we go again!

The good news first: Twitter has completely removed the #QFD shadowban method. While it had been disabled for quite some time, they've now removed the 'Quality Filter' option from their apps, as well. So I'm pleased to announce that shadowban.eu has successfully exposed and defeated one of Twitter's shadowbanning methods.

Many thanks to everyone involved; from all users raising awareness using the in their name to journalists all around the world writing articles about #QFD.

Quality Filter option in Search filters
Search filters without Quality Filter option

Twitter doesn't get tired of making our lives hard, though.

I'm sure you have come across this view:

"This Tweet is unavailable" can mean several things:

  • The tweet got deleted,
  • you are blocked by the user
  • or their profile is set to private.

Well, it turns out that those aren't the only possible reasons you are seeing this message, instead of the tweet.
You guessed it; shadowban!

Twitter seems to flag certain images, videos and texts, which leads to their tweets being hidden behind this "unavailable" message. Look at this image! It shows a comment you have seen and clicked on in your timeline. The tweet the comment was made on is "unavailable".

When viewing a comment, the tweet seems e.g. deleted

After some digging, you might find the tweet anyway; and it's not deleted, at all!

The tweet that was shown as "unavailable" does exist.

Weird, huh? Oh, but wait! It. Gets. BETTER!
Did you notice that the hidden tweet from @neythomas is quoting someone else's tweet?

Indeed, it's not @neythomas' tweet that is flagged here; it's the quoted one. Let's have a look at it and then visit its first comment. Actually being the next tweet of the author's thread, which lets us know that it doesn't matter who made the comment.

The actually flagged tweet
Viewing a comment also hides this tweet

This then shows that quoting flagged tweets hides the quoting tweet, too. The heredity also does not end at the first level. If you quote a tweet that has quoted a flagged tweet... I think you see where this is going.
Almost like #QFD used to work, this new shadowbanning method affects everyone and -thing that touches tweets by Twitter deemed to be bad.

Why bad? We don't know, yet.
I wouldn't call the tweets you see in this example controversial. They are complaining about a member of the German Green party - moreover, a member of parliament - having been interviewed by our public broadcasting services, without disclosing that fact. The topic of the broadcast is controversial, though. It's about a wholefood shop that has discontinued a brand of millet, because the CEO of the company producing it is a member of the German right-wing party AfD.
The Green party being far left is where people start butting heads.

Here are some other examples you might want to explore: