Shadowban signals
Engagement cliff
The heaviest-weighted signal, and the one most people actually mean when they say "shadowbanned". Both halves matter: a drop alone is normal variance, but a drop that also puts you under 100 interactions suggests distribution has changed rather than that one post underperformed.
- Weight
- 30 / 100
- Window
- last 3 posts vs posts 4–20
- Verdict bands
- 0–25 · 26–59 · 60+
The exact rule
Your last three posts average more than 60% below posts 4 to 20, and the recent average is under 100 interactions.
What to do about it
- Check whether the drop lines up with a change you made — a new format, a different posting time, a caption style.
- Post something closer to what worked before posts 4–20 and see whether reach recovers. If it does, this was content, not suppression.
- If three consecutive posts in your old format also land under the cliff, look at the other six signals before concluding anything.
Also covered here: Engagement velocity drop, which measures the same collapse over a 7-day versus 30-day window and is weighted 10.