What Is a Reddit Shadowban?
A Reddit shadowban is a site-wide moderation action where a user's posts and comments become invisible to all other users while the banned account continues to function normally from the user's own perspective. The user can still log in, post, and comment - but nothing they submit is visible to anyone else. It is Reddit's stealthiest form of enforcement, designed to stop spammers without alerting them.
How Does a Shadowban Work?
When Reddit's admins or anti-spam systems shadowban an account, they flip a flag on the account that makes all activity invisible. From the banned user's perspective, everything looks normal. They can browse, post, comment, and upvote. But their posts never appear in subreddit feeds, their comments are invisible in threads, and their profile page returns a "page not found" error for everyone except themselves.
This design is intentional. Traditional bans notify the user, who then creates a new account and continues the same behavior. Shadowbans keep spammers posting into the void, wasting their time without disrupting the community. Reddit has used this approach since its early days, though the platform has evolved to include more transparent moderation actions alongside it.
How Is a Shadowban Different from Other Reddit Bans?
Reddit has several levels of moderation actions, and understanding the differences matters for anyone using the platform for marketing or distribution:
Subreddit Ban
Applied by subreddit moderators, not Reddit admins. You receive a notification telling you that you are banned from a specific subreddit. You can still post everywhere else on Reddit. This is the most common and least severe ban type.
Account Suspension
Applied by Reddit admins. You receive a notification, and your account is either temporarily locked (3 to 7 days for minor violations) or permanently suspended. You know you are suspended because you cannot log in or use the account.
Shadowban
Applied by Reddit admins or automated anti-spam systems. No notification. The account appears to function normally but all content is invisible to other users. This is the hardest to detect and the most damaging for distribution efforts because you can waste days or weeks posting content nobody sees.
What Triggers a Shadowban?
Reddit's anti-spam systems use automated detection algorithms alongside manual admin review. Based on publicly available information from Reddit's content policy and community observations, the most common triggers include:
Aggressive self-promotion - Posting links to the same domain repeatedly, especially if a large percentage of your submissions link to one site. Reddit's guidelines suggest that self-promotional content should make up less than 10% of your total activity.
Cross-posting the same link - Submitting identical links or near-identical posts across multiple subreddits in a short time. This pattern is a classic spam signal.
Vote manipulation - Using multiple accounts to upvote your own content or downvote competitors. Reddit tracks voting patterns and detects accounts that consistently vote together.
Rapid-fire posting - Posting or commenting at a rate that exceeds normal human behavior. New accounts that suddenly post dozens of times per hour get flagged immediately.
Suspicious account signals - Accounts tied to the same IP address, browser fingerprint, or device ID as previously banned accounts. This is particularly relevant for teams running multi-account management strategies.
How Do You Detect a Shadowban?
Since Reddit does not notify shadowbanned users, you need to check proactively:
Log out and visit your profile - Go to reddit.com/u/yourusername in a browser where you are not logged in. If the page shows "page not found" or "this user has deleted their account," you are shadowbanned.
Use an incognito window - Post a comment, then check that comment in an incognito or private browsing window. If the comment is not visible, the account is shadowbanned.
Check r/ShadowBan - The subreddit r/ShadowBan has bots that automatically check accounts that post there. Submit a post and the bot will tell you your account status.
Monitor engagement - A sudden drop to zero engagement on all posts and comments - no upvotes, no replies, no interaction at all - is a strong indicator of a shadowban.
How Do You Appeal a Shadowban?
Reddit provides an official appeals process at reddit.com/appeals. The process involves:
- Submit an appeal explaining that you believe your account was shadowbanned
- Provide context about your account activity and what may have triggered the ban
- Wait for an admin to review - response times range from 24 hours to several weeks
- If approved, the shadowban is lifted and your account returns to normal
Appeals are more likely to succeed when the violation was accidental or minor. Accounts with a long history of legitimate engagement before the ban also fare better than accounts that were primarily promotional.
How Do You Prevent Shadowbans?
Prevention is far more effective than appeals. For startups using Reddit as a distribution channel, these practices reduce shadowban risk:
- Maintain the 90/10 ratio - Keep self-promotional content below 10% of total activity, as outlined in Reddit marketing best practices
- Build karma gradually - Do not rush the karma-building process with rapid posting
- Vary your activity - Mix comments, posts, upvotes, and different subreddits into a natural usage pattern
- Use unique infrastructure per account - For multi-account operations, each account needs its own IP address, browser fingerprint, and email
- Never vote on your own content from another account - vote manipulation is the fastest path to a shadowban
At Conbersa, shadowban prevention is built into our infrastructure. Every account we manage has independent technical signals, graduated warm-up schedules, and automated health monitoring that detects early warning signs before a shadowban occurs. When you are operating distribution at scale, losing an account to an avoidable shadowban is a waste of the weeks of karma-building investment that went into it.