U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes is suing Twitter and selected users for $250 million, alleging something he calls “anti-conservative bias,” “shadow bans,” and “smears.”
The Republican Congressman from California is claiming Twitter and “a handful of its users,” according to Fox News, have been “‘shadow-banning conservatives’ including himself to influence the 2018 elections, explicitly and systematically censoring opposing viewpoints and ‘ignoring’ lawful complaints of repeated abusive behavior.
“Shadow-banning” is when a social media platform narrows the scope of someone’s reach or bans them but allows them to operate normally, but does not allow anyone else to see their posts. It’s often done on some platforms to discourage banned users from opening new accounts, and is not illegal.