X Provides Explanations of Common Reach Restrictions Amid Accusations of Shadowbans

Amid ongoing concerns about alleged “shadowbans” and limiting certain posts and content, X has provided some new tips on how to ensure that you’re entering hashtags and @symbols correctly in your posts, in order to avoid common mistakes.

Which suggests that X itself isn’t looking to limit certain posts or topics, though given the various algorithmic weights at play, it’s impossible for anyone outside of the company to definitively say one way or another.

Which is always going to be problematic among a more conspiracy-susceptible crowd.

As per X:

“Some users have reported difficulties using hashtags in posts, and unexpected behavior in replies and mentions.”

In order to avoid potential issues, X advises that users should:

• Ensure you don’t include a symbol after a username (e.g. if you enter “@XSupport.123“, your message will be sent to @XSupport , not @XSupport123)
• Don’t include any text or symbols before the @ symbol (if you enter “.@XSupport” or “?@XSupport”, it will be treated as a normal post and will appear on the timeline of all the poster’s followers)
• Ensure your posts are not private
• In terms of hashtags, X advises that you can’t include any symbols or punctuation marks between or after the characters in the hashtag (e.g. if you type “#Awesome! Fun!”, the post will be categorized with the hashtag “#Awesome”. The hashtag will be cut off where you insert punctuation marks or symbols)
• Don’t include letters before the # symbol (e.g. posts with
  
  “123#fun” or “word#fun” will not show up in search results for the hashtag “#fun”
• Hashtags with just numbers won’t work (e.g. if you type #1 or #123 , the hashtag won’t be hyperlinked and won’t be searchable for that keyword. However, if you include letters after the numbers in your hashtag, like #123Go , it will still work as a hashtag)

These are all fairly basic reminders, with X looking to ensure that users are aware of the actual functionality of each element.

Because presumably, these are still common mistakes that trip some users up. And when they can’t see their replies in-stream, or they’re not getting through as they think they should, some people are always going to assume that they’re being limited, when they’re really not.

X also notes that technical limits can restrict visibility:

“If you don’t see your reply below a post, it may be because we’ve reached a technical capacity limit. If a post has many replies, X won’t show all of them. However, if your reply appears on your timeline, the post author will most likely be able to see your reply in the Notifications tab.”

So, basically, X is saying that there could be a range of simple issues that impact visibility, so rather than assuming that you’ve been limited, and tweeting that out to everybody, maybe check these things first.  

Though, of course, X has also exacerbated this problem, by fueling past conspiracy theories about the same.

For years, X owner Elon Musk claimed that Twitter was shadowbanning certain users, and restricting the reach of certain discussion points, in favor of left-leaning views.

But it wasn’t. There’s no evidence to suggest that Twitter was doing anything untoward in his respect, and while it did take action to limit certain comments, like COVID vaccine criticisms at one stage, it did so based on advice from official sources, amidst an unprecedented global lockdown.

In retrospect, some will highlight this as an example of censorship. But in the vast majority of cases, Twitter actually resisted calls for restrictions, from various governments and government agencies.

Still, the fact that Musk himself has promoted the spectre of censorship has now raised criticism on X itself, with its user base further strengthened in their belief that external forces are at play, and are trying to limit certain discussion points, one way or another.

Because that’s what Musk and Co. have told them is happening, so really, X has made this a bigger problem, leading to more finger pointing for every perceived infraction.

At the same time, there’s also been accusations that X’s Community Notes system has been infiltrated by organized groups, who band together to delete notes that they don’t agree with ideologically.

Speculation on that front has lingered for some time, which is an even bigger concern given that Meta is also shifting to a similar moderation model, while last week, Musk also felt compelled to provide another explainer on how X indirectly restricts the reach of link posts.

So there’s clearly a level of unease within the X community around possible manipulation/shadowbans/restrictions.

There’s also been speculation that those who cross Elon in one way or another end up having their reach in the app, and subsequent engagement-based earnings, killed off as a result.

Though much of that seems rooted in the fact that they once benefited from Elon re-posting or engaging with their content, which they lose if he decides to stop doing so.

Overall, then, these issues seem less insidious than conspiracies may suggest. But if you throw fuel onto that fire, you can’t complain when you also feel the heat.