Thread by @circularWalk

Hearing reports that many #FBPE are getting shadow banned or short bans on twitter & don't understand why. This thread is intended to help you protect yourself. 1/n

1) What is a shadow ban? It is basically when you tweet & twitter don't send it to anyone at all. It happened to me at the weekend. Just silence. No notifications, & all you get on your home page is recipes for carrot cake. They can do a partial one. A full one is scary. 2/n

If it happens, ask a few friends to find you & retweet you, this helps send the message that people DO want to see what you send - it helps. 😀

Why do these things happen? Basically bc you are being reported for breaking the rules. 3/n

Shadow ban often if you are being reported a lot but aren't actually really breaking the rules. Full ban if you do break the rules.

Most obvious solution - really - don't break the rules. This helps a lot. Don't call down pile-ons, don't name call. Avoid swearing if possible 4/n

But that isn't enough. You need to identify the group that is doing it. On political twitter that will be either the extreme right or left, & both do it.

Identify the tags they use, identify the fanatics, if they are on a thread with you - block them.
5/n

Blocking is not a surrender of your ability to give people a fair hearing - it is you surviving to campaign where people may hear & listen. Those people won't.

There are certain hashtags often used by extreme left & right - see them as danger flags & consider blocking users.
6/n

Likewise - there are people who are big in the Leave campaigns, their celebrities, who have fans who protect them. If they see you criticise that person, they will report your tweet.

So - do not use the @xzhandlehandle of anyone of this kind, do not quote tweet them. 7/n

I mis-spell their names, & if I want to show their tweet - I screen dump & attach as a meme - it isn't clickable - it doesn't give them publicity, & they ( & their fans) can't find you so easily to attack you.
8/n

If you join a conversation and someone has already been tagged into it - then you can untag them from your reply. This means that what you say about them is not sent to their notifications. (you are not going to hurt them or change their mind, so don't tell them.... 9/n

..... you are talking about them) .
This is how you do it - go to the text above the reply box - as shown - & click on x others. A list will come up of the people in the conversation. Untick the one you want to remove.
10/n

A particular warning about the leaders of the 2 main political parties in the UK. Do not tag them into threads without considerable thought, don't do it just as a shorthand for using their names. There are people who watch for this & report all criticism on the offchance. 11/n

Tagging them makes it really easy for them to find you (and people you are replying to) doing it - & they will report.

Twitter does tendto go on "no smoke without fire" so if a lot of people report something, they may remove it, or sanction you. Just because!
12/n

Remember that when you block - people may be able to see you from another account or when signed out, but it is much harder, & they generally won't see your posts in a thread.

Doing the above has helped many people get shadow banned less often.
13/n

Please pass this to anyone who you know has had these problems. Generally if your account is banned for short time, you can still use the message system

Let's keep #FBPE active & communicating! 😀😎😃
#Stopbrexit #FinalSay #PeoplesVote #FinalSayforAll #WATON #BinBrexit 14/ends