I have determined the shadow banning by comparing the tweets I see under the #alpolitics hashtag when I am logged into my @RobShattuckAL06 Twitter account, with the tweets I see under the #alpolitics hashtag when I am logged into a different Twitter account.
When I am logged into my @RobShattuckAL06 Twitter account, I see under the #alpolitics hashtag my tweets I have sent using that hashtag. When I am logged into the different Twitter account, I don't see under the #alpolitics hashtag my tweets that I have sent using the #alpolitics hashtag.
The foregoing hashtag shadow banning of me being done by Twitter extends to at least one other hashtag and may extend to other hashtags I use on Twitter.
All of my tweets can be seen in my Tweets & replies.
If you look at my tweets in my Tweets & replies, I don't think you will find anything that is objectionable, except I have been doing a lot of tweeting on #alpolitics, and there are a lot of long threads and links to prior tweets and threads of mine.
I understand that, because a lot of tweeters may do various things in "excessive" ways in their tweeting, Twitter needs to control such "excessiveness."
If Twitter is going to have controls over "excessiveness," users need to be able to know when they are doing something "excessively" on Twitter and for "excessiveness" to be subject to some measure that allows users to reduce whatever they are doing "excessively" so that it is no longer "excessive."
One way of doing this, which Twitter is doing, is to limit the number of tweets that a user can send during a specified period of time. Currently the limit is 2400 tweets per day. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-limits.
If that limit is exceeded, I believe the sanction Twitter uses is to not allow the user to send tweets for awhile, in order to bring the user back under the limitation, and the user is aware if the user tries to send a tweet and cannot.
I have not exceeded the 2400 tweets per day limit.
Under Twitter's rules and policies, the only thing I see that seems relevant to my case is spamming guidelines and specifically regarding "multiple duplicate updates on one account." Possibly my tweets that included links to prior tweets and threads of mine violate the foregoing.
Threads allow for expressing things that cannot be done in a single tweet. Threads also allow for tacking on new things that are relevant to a subject that is discussed in the thread. This can occur over weeks and threads could become very long. Alternatively, instead of increasing the length of a single thread, tacking on new relevant things over longer periods of time can be done by starting a new thread in which the first tweet in the new thread gives a link to the previous thread.
I have the further rationale that I am endeavoring to promote two sided discussions on #alpolitics. Participants on #alpolitics have been resistant to engaging in two sided discussions. I have been using links to prior tweets and prior threads as a reminder to the effect of "this has been brought up before here, and participants were unresponsive and two sided discussion did not take place back then."
The approach of the numerical limitations on numbers of tweets and the sanction of temporarily preventing tweeting may not be practical as regards "multiple duplicate updates on one account."
Unlike the sanction of not being able to send tweets temporarily (which the user is aware of if the user tries to send a tweet), the user is deceived when there is hashtag shadow banning because the user sees the user's tweets when the user looks on the hashtag, but other users are not seeing the user's tweets when the other users are looking on the hashtag. This deceiving of the user by Twitter seems highly objectionable.
In my case, I have become aware of the hashtag shadow banning, so I know it is happening, but I don't know exactly what I need to do to avoid shadow banning and to get my shadow banning lifted. I can only contact @TwitterSupport and ask what I can do to get my shadow banning lifted.
@TwitterSupport Twitter has shadow banned me. Can you please tell me how I can modify my tweeting to have the shadow ban lifted? Thank you. https://t.co/HEwMtIeHSb #alpolitics— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) August 31, 2018
[Update 10/4/18: It appears that Twitter has shadow banned me again. My first experience of Twitter shadow banning me was on or about August 31st (when I originally wrote this blog entry). As described below in this blog entry, Twitter did not notify me of the imposition of the shadow ban (which I discovered on my own), Twitter Support never tweeted me back after I sent the tweet set out at the end of this blog entry, and Twitter did not notify me when it lifted the shadow ban, which Twitter did a couple of days after the ban was imposed. The current shadow ban is impairing my efforts to quell the Kavnaugh furies. See Proposed letter for Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh to sign. For follow up of what I am doing about current shadow ban, see Twitter shadow ban follow up.]
[Update 10/7/18: With no sense of when Twitter will lift shadow ban, I am turning to Facebook to communicate and am trying to add apt Facebook friends.]
