Instagram's New Feature For Checking If Content Is Eligible To Be Recommended To Non-Followers Is The Proof That Shadowban Is Real
Adam Mosseri, Instagram's CEO, declared last week on a new Instagram feature aims to help users improve their posts exposure by understanding what content is eligible to be recommended to non-followers.
According to Mosser, this feature is part of Instagram's approach of being more transperent to the users.
"Sometimes your account can end up in a state where it's not eligible for your photos and videos to show up in recommendations".
"If you have posted things that violate our 'recommendability' guidelines or recommendation guidelines... you can end up in a state where your content won't be recommended".
By that, the users will be able to delete, change or appeal to Instagram in case their posts are not recommended to non-followers.
If you ask yourself the question how you can see the recommendation to non-followers feature on Instagram is currently partly available for some users and it would probable be available for all users in the upcoming weeks.
What Is Shadowban And How Its Related To This Feature?
Shadowbanning limits the visibility of a user's content on a social media platform without their knowledge. It is typically used as a way for the platform to punish users who violate the platform's terms of service, such as by spamming or posting offensive content.
Back on February 2020, Mosseri was asked during a Q&A on his Instagram account "Shadowban isn't a thing, right?". Mosseri answered this question, saying, "Shadow banning is not a thing.". "If someone follows you on Instagram, your photos and videos can show up in their feed if they keep using their feed. Being on [Instagram's Explore] is not guaranteed for anyone. Sometimes you'll get lucky, and sometimes you won't."
Instagrams' New Feature For Content Is Eligible To Be Recommended To Non-Followers Is The Proof That Shadowban Exists
Despite Instagram's denials about Shadowban's existence, the new feature helps users fix the primary effect of Shadowban, which is hiding content by the platforms and not exposing them to people who are not followers. In addition, this tool comes to lower the flames against social networks for starting to control the discourse on the platform and hiding content from the public.
Hence, the denial made by Adam Mosseri on February 2020 about the existence of Shadowban is not acceptable anymore. After launching this new feature, we can say in high percentage that the platform control what content is promoted and what content is not - approving the existence of Shadowban.
