Tag Archives: Twitter

Twitter Policy Changes: About Canned Promo Tweets

Twitter Shadowbanning AKA The Circles Of Hell

A while ago I wrote about Twitter shadowbans. While it’s no laughing matter, I did make a joke about how no one knows exactly how it works, how many levels there are…

I am guessing there are several "levels" of #ShadowBanning – much like Hell. pic.twitter.com/MrguveNHkx

— Phone Sex Secrets (@PhoneSexSecrets) January 24, 2018

This became abundantly apparent to me recently when I discovered something new. New — and hideous.

But let me back up a bit, first.

No one knows exactly what is happening with Twitter shadowbans. Twitter won’t really confess to the practice. Even when you document what you can, use tools to check, etc.. But the basic premise is that while the shadowbanned are hidden from the general population, Twitter itself appears “normal” to shadowbanned.

However, I have noticed some inconsistencies which have led me to believe there are various types or levels of shadowbanning. Hence my levels of Hell reference.

It seems that in some cases of shadowbanning, it’s as simple (and devious) as noted above. If/when you are shadowbanned, you are not notified this has happened. Your Twitter experience looks the same. However, you will likely notice a few problems. For one, your stats aka analytics will show a drop in activity. When using search, you cannot find yourself — not by username or handle, not by hashtags. This is that part about others not being able to find you. Additionally, folks you mention (i.e. tweet to, using their @ handle) do not get notices that you have done so. Also, folks won’t get notices that you retweeted or replied to their tweets etc.. Leaving you to feel ignored or iced-out. Or just crazy.

The theory has been that you, the shadowbanned Twitter account, will not experience such things from folks who follow you. Meaning those who follow you will still see your tweets, can find you in searches and will get notices of mentions, replies, etc., and you will get notices from them too.

Yet, it doesn’t always seem to be so. For even when you follow all your followers, notifications go missing.

As it is difficult to prove a negative, this has made documenting shadowbans difficult.

However, I have just stumbled into another Twitter shadowban phenomenon — another circle of Hell. And I will document it here as best I can.

In this circle or level of Twitter’s Shadwoban Hell, even when you follow a shadowbanned account — and they follow you too — you will not find that their hashtags do not work.

For example, both CR/LF and I follow one another. I can see his tweets. (I’d show you a screencap, but there are boobs – hence his shadowban lol)

Yet, his tweets do not show up in searches. He only shows up in searches of “people”.

And relatively recently, he made a thread of sorts using the hashtag maybeishouldmasturbateinstead (a rather funny series of tweets with a rather powerful social commentary, I thought) — but even while I was able to read his tweet, clicking the hash resulted in nothing.

Like it never existed.

Puzzling, right?

And it makes it near impossible to find, follow, & share such tweets.

(And note to self: If you don’t want to risk this, make a real thread by using the reply function.)

But this weird bit of shadowbanning has more weirdness… Apparently, it also affects accounts which have, at some point or other, been shadowbanned — but are now fine. Case in point: The Peck & Call Girls. They have been shadowbanned a time or two – but are currently “normal.” Again, we follow one another. Yet, when I click on this tweet with the makebeautifulmusictogether hash, there are no results. Well, I should say, there were no results. After three days, the search results appeared.

Indicating what? That it takes a while to be unshadowbanned? …Does one need to move through the various circles of Hell while being reinstated?

Hell if I know.

What does this mean for you? What if you find yourself stuck in a circle of Hell? Well, you might not be able to name the circle of Hell, and therefore find yourself unable to identify just how to get out of it…

Advice on how to avoid or rid yourself of Twitter shadowban practices varies. Widely. And this too adds to my belief that there are a number of circles or levels. But best practices include:

* Avoid over-use of automated services. Not just platform promotional tweets based on sales etc., but those astrology things and even papers.

* Avoid over-use of hashtags. No more than 2 or 3 per tweet. And do not hijack mainstream trending hashtags with your adult smut.

* Avoid over-use of tweets with links. Not just adult links. Not only links to your site, platform, etc. But any links at all. Just tweet text. You know, speak like a person.

* Avoid over-use of mentions or tagging.

* Avoid tons of RTs, especially if from a specific account or two. Add to the conversation with a reply or, if you don’t mind being orphaned from the discussion, using the “Quote Tweet” option.

* Avoid over-use of adult images. (There are other images to share, ya know. And tease is a huge part of this industry!)

In many ways this is just a “do not be a spammer” thing.

Use a lot of text only tweets.

Yes, being flagged, blocked, muted, etc. is a problem — one which disproportionately is applied to — and censors — adult topics and accounts. That we cannot, as of yet, avoid. But we can likely limit other offenses, deeper circles of Hell.

Are You Trying To Make Money In Phone Sex, Or Be An Advocate?

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Yes, I know this post is going to anger some folks — but only if they don’t really take the time to read & digest it.

So here’s your warning: Pause, take a breath, read for comprehension, and see if this A) may apply to you & B) whether or not you feel it impacts you enough to do anything about it.

***

For the past few months, I’ve been hearing from a number of my PSO clients that they feel that call volume has slowed down &/or that they’ve been getting fewer new clients. There can be a number of reasons for this, of course. But when I take a look at their blogs and Twitter accounts, I see a pattern…

Simply put, there’s a lot of ranting & raving, wailing & hair-pulling, going on. Not only in the content phone sex operators are creating, but the content they are sharing as well. And all of this intense energy (be it negative or advocacy) is contrary to the notions of entertainment — which is, at its most simple, activity which provides pleasure and delight, an escape or respite from reality.

Yes, this past year or more has been a tumultuous period — especially if you are a woman, a person of color, LBGT+, or any other minority or marginalized group… Or if you just need something as basic as health care. And all this definitely includes sex workers. I also understand how all the current political and economic environment produces stress which negatively impacts mental health, among other things. I get it. All of it. Beleive me. I’ve even written about this for clients to hip them to the realities of our lives.

Yes, there are times when it makes sense to educate clients. And there are times to alert clients to actions they can and should take as a citizen, as an ally. There are absolutely issues, situations, and the like which should be voiced by you to the followers you have cultivated.

But when your blog, your Twitter — your brand — comes across like as a constant stream of anger, upset, or ire; when it makes you sound like a sad-sack; when it reads like a to-do list of political actions and civic duties; you are going to lose client interest and potential customers both. And all these words you’re using? They are read by search engines too; which means you are messing up your SEO as well.

For those of you who say, “If they don’t agree with me politically, I don’t want to deal with them anyway! — or something similar — let me tell you, you are equally as likely to turn off like-minded individuals.

Why?

Because, again, paying phone sex callers are looking for fun, for pleasure — for an escape from the daily grind! It’s exhausting for all of us. Clients pay for entertainment, including adult services, to escape.

Now, I’m not saying, “You can’t blog, tweet, or talk about anything negative or important.” I’m just saying that if you feel your income is suffering, if you fear your economic livelihood is threatened, then you ought to look over your online presence and access whether or not it may be turning clients and potential clients off.

Nor am I saying, “You are not allowed to be a person or to express yourself.” I’m just asking you to consider whether your need to express yourself is getting in the way of your marketing plan and financial goals.

If you feel that you need to express more often, if you feel you need to point out what’s wrong, what needs to be done, get yourself another blog &/or Twitter account upon which to vent, educate, and represent your activism, converse regularly with the movement(s) of your choice. That’s what many of us do, myself included.

I know how easy it can be to fall into the ranting trap. I really do. Often, such rant-tweets are the most popular tweets we can make! This is because other sex workers will often jump in with retweets or add comments. But other sex workers are not our target audience. If you forget who you are trying to reach, i.e. fans, loyal clients, and potential callers, then you can quickly find yourself losing that audience — and the related income.

Ask yourself, are you trying to make money in phone sex, or be an advocate for a cause or movement?

If it’s the former, take a few minutes, look over your online accounts, and ask yourself if your actions are supporting that endeavor.

***

Is this your first time here? You may wish to read this post and my Statement Of Purpose asap!

Even if you’ve been here before, you may have missed the new additions to the site:

Shadowbanned On Twitter? What You Need To Know

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With the recent changes to Twitter policies, more and more folks are concerned about the so-called shadowbanning. Shadowbanning, also known as stealth banning or ghosting, is when your tweets are hidden from conversations aka hashtag searches. In other words, your Twitter account is visible, all the tweets can be seen – except when a person clicks a hashtag and your tweet (including the hash, of course) is not to be found. Similarly, your tweets will not show up in threads and conversations. All of this naturally neutralizes your ability to be found and therefore participate in conversations.

Other nasty side effects of being shadowbanned include not having notifications of your @ mentions delivered to the account you mention, your own account not showing up in searches for it, and your most recent images not being shown in the most recent grid, etc..

It should be noted that Twitter is not the only social media site or digital community to use shadowbanning; it’s just that Twitter has been the largest social media site remaining open to adult folks, so its shadowbanning impacts us the most.

Shadowbanning has a long history of use. Originally, it was used in online communities to keep spammers at bay — without tipping them off that they were being subtly blocked. It is designed to ban the comments of specific users whilst keeping the user ignorant that they have been banned.

Since shadowbanning is designed to keep the banned in the shadows of knowledge, not even knowing they have been so banned, you might have to use a tool to discover it for yourself. Here’s a free way to do that.

How does shadowbanning happen?

It appears one of the primary ways your tweets can be shadowbanned are the dreaded sending of “reports” of tweets. While based on user reports, Twitter then uses artificial intelligence (AI) to attempt to discern things, such as mature or controversial topics, which get other users to report, mute, or block an account.

It’s important to note that there’s no human judgment made here. Hence the additional concerns with new Twitter policies regarding sex. As noted at YNOT:

The sections dealing with non-consensual nudity and unwanted sexual advances may be the most relevant to the adult entertainment industry. As Starr himself admitted in the email, entire porn genres are dedicated to non-consent and stalker fantasies. Nevertheless, Twitter has expanded its definition of non-consensual nudity “to more broadly include content like upskirt imagery, ‘creep shots,’ and hidden camera content,” Starr wrote.

“We will immediately and permanently suspend any account we identify as the original poster/source of non-consensual nudity and/or if a user makes it clear they are intentionally posting said content to harass their target,” Starr stated in the email. “We will do a full account review whenever we receive a Tweet-level report about non-consensual nudity. If the account appears to be dedicated to posting non-consensual nudity then we will suspend the entire account immediately.”

Starr also noted it’s nearly impossible for Twitter to distinguish between real and faux non-consensual nudity, so “[w]e would rather error [sic] on the side of protecting victims and removing this type of content when we become aware of it.”

In a departure from previous policy, Twitter’s safety team will not require a report from an alleged victim before suspending an account for non-consensual content. Adult industry companies that produce non-consent fantasy material need to be aware the proposed new policy could be weaponized by anti-porn activists, competitors, dissatisfied customers and people who simply enjoy creating drama.

These new policies are ambiguous and subjective enough — without trading human involvement for AI. Yet, even if your account is not shut down for dealing with such (or similar) fantasy material, reports (complaints) — especially multiple reports — could lead to your account being shadowbanned. And since the act of shadowbanning users is to keep them in the dark about it, Twitter offers no official help.

Shadow banning, it should be noted, happens to mainstream folks too. And it’s here that we may find the solution to shadowbanning on Twitter. Tania (of When Tania Talks) reports on a tip from Milly (of Mini Adventures) that seems to work:

So what was this genius idea? Well, apparently the world revolves around money. Milly found that by contacting the Twitter Ads team and suggesting that she wanted to place an ad, but her hashtags weren’t working resulted in her Twitter shadowban being lifted. This was done within two hours of contacting the Twitter Ads team.

Apparently, just asking about the situation — not actually paying for ads — works. (Though, if you are shadowbanned, even paying for ads might be a worthy solution!) Though it should be noted that many adult accounts won’t be able to buy Twitter ads, if you’re stuck in shadowbanned land on Twitter it may be worth giving this a try. (At least you could open a dialogue.)

You can check here & here for more tips on dealing with Twitter shadowbans on my Twitter.

All of this shadowbanning — and general signs of the pornocalypse — is just additional proof to me that one needs a website of their very own. Yes, participate on other sites, playing by their rules. But never be entirely dependant on the practices, policies, and whims of another site.

UPDATE: 3/24/2018 New post with documentation and updated tips!

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