What is Shadowban?

A shadowban on Reddit is one of the most feared moderation outcomes for marketers. When shadowbanned, your posts and comments appear completely normal from your perspective, but no other user can see them. Reddit applies shadowbans to accounts that violate site-wide rules, particularly around spam and vote manipulation. According to community estimates, over 11% of new accounts engaging in promotional activity within their first 48 hours receive a shadowban. The key prevention strategy involves building genuine karma through non-promotional participation for at least 14 days before posting any links or brand mentions. Tools like Reddwise's compliance checker help identify shadowban risk factors before posting. You can check if you are shadowbanned by viewing your profile in an incognito browser window — if your profile returns a 404 error, you have been shadowbanned.