Shadowban

A shadowban is a moderation technique in which an account remains fully functional from the user's perspective but its contributions are hidden from everyone else. The shadowbanned person can still post, comment, and vote, and their own feed looks normal, yet their submissions never appear publicly to other users. Because no notification is given, people are often unaware they have been shadowbanned for days. The approach is used to suppress spam and abusive or automated behavior without alerting the offender, who might otherwise simply create another account.

Reddit historically operated a true sitewide shadowban that was its main anti-spam tool, and it remains in use for accounts flagged as spam or bots. For human users who break rules, Reddit now generally prefers visible account suspensions, reserving shadowbans largely for spam and bot activity. At the community level, moderators can replicate the effect using AutoModerator or removal tools so that a user's content is silently filtered in a single subreddit. Common triggers for sitewide shadowbans include operating multiple accounts, posting too quickly, or repeatedly sharing identical links, all patterns Reddit's automated systems associate with spam. Critics argue the lack of transparency makes shadowbans difficult to appeal.