I finally quit Facebook after a 3 week test with a VPN

I always thought people complaining about shadowbanning were paranoid. Then I ran a test for 3 weeks from Austin with a VPN, posting the same political article to my US account and a UK account. The US one got zero reach for 18 hours while the UK one hit my normal numbers instantly. My feed suddenly made sense after that. Has anyone else actually run a controlled test like this, or am I just lucky with my timing?

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1 Comment

gavin_kim327d ago

Three weeks of that experiment lines up with what I noticed at my local coffee shop, where regulars get their usual order and newcomers get ignored until they prove they'll stick around. The algorithm's doing the same thing, just deciding who's worth showing to the crowd based on your history and location. It's not paranoia when the data backs it up, it's just another system that treats strangers different than regulars.