Hearts & Minds: UnHerd becomes UnSeen as stealth banning comes out of the shadows

Paul Marshall, owner of GB News, Spectator and UnHerd, is warning of the ‘shadow banning’ of content by the tech platforms.

In a speech at Oxford University, the media boss said he became aware of the practice when an UnHerd interview with the former Supreme Court justice, Lord Sumption was being widely viewed on YouTube and the visits suddenly ceased. It was during Covid and Sumption was challenging lockdown. One minute, he was attracting a large audience; the next, the interest stopped. It was the platform, Marshall was told, exercising ‘algorithmic visibility demotion’ or in layman’s language, shadow banning, also known as stealth banning, hell banning or comment ghosting. It’s when a social network, without telling anyone, turns off the mic.

The user is blocked or partially blocked. Other users can no longer view their content. It’s online censorship in which you’re still allowed to speak but no one can hear. It’s done without notice, hence the shadow. The problem is that the user doesn’t know it’s happened. They suspect it might but they are not sure. After all, a post may simply not be being shared because it isn’t very good. You don’t know. A survey found almost 1 in 10 Americans believe they have been shadow banned.

While rows rage about its existence - late in the day, the platforms have admitted they do pull the plug when it suits them, although they prefer to use terms like ‘deamplification’, ‘reducing reach’ or ‘visibility filtering’ – comms teams need to be aware.

In a sense, ‘silent reduction’, an umbrella phrase coined by Tarleton Gillespie, author of ‘Custodians of the Internet’ is not new. In mainstream media, newspapers and broadcasters have always applied editorial prerogative as to whether something should appear and how. In newspapers, a story may not feature or could feature prominently in the first edition but be buried or disappear completely by the final. Same in TV news, where schedules are selective and as the day progresses, pieces fall down the schedule or vanish altogether.

The networks are private operators; they can do what they like. Asking them to explain their self-regulation rules may lead to nowhere. There may not be clear guidance at all. Equally, tempting as it could be to ask them to follow their discretion and casually remove something is difficult and may result in frustration.

We should probably accept, free speech does not mean free reach.

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.