Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Eric Carmen (@RealEricCarmen) is battling Twitter. The open conservative and supporter of President Trump often complains that his tweets are being suppressed and that Twitter is deleting his followers. For example, in an April 2 tweet, Carmen said that Twitter is “rolling off followers, and suppressing my tweets.”
Carmen, who has amassed over 112,000 followers on Twitter since joining in 2009, has taken to asking his followers if they can see certain tweets he has made, and to retweet them if they can. Many of his followers report that, while they can see his tweets if they visit his profile page, they can not see his tweets in their feeds. One follower commented on his April 2 tweet that it was “the first post I’ve seen from you in several days.” This is the common definition of shadowbanning, with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary explaining it as when "the user's account is still active, but is prevented from appearing in the feeds of other users."
At times over the last few months, Carmen said he even voluntarily deleted some of his tweets in an effort to loosen the apparent restrictions on his account. The reports of suppression continue, however, with the latest on April 7.
Twitter Terms of Service (TOS) explicitly state that it “may also remove or refuse to distribute any Content on the Services, limit distribution or visibility of any Content on the service, suspend or terminate users, and reclaim usernames without liability to you.” This appears to be in contrast to Twitter’s previously stated stance, expressed by CEO Jack Dorsey in a 2018 radio interview with Sean Hannity, that, “We do not shadowban according to political ideology or viewpoint or content, period.”
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The current TOS seems to indicate that Twitter can utilize shadowbanning, and makes no comment on the reasons it may do so. The Washington Times further summarized Dorsey’s comments from the same interview, suggesting the platform’s goal was to maintain “an atmosphere of civility and courtesy for all,” while attempting to keep “posts free of regulation and restriction.”
A Twitter representative responded to a request for comment, stating that Twitter “took no enforcement action” against Carmen’s account.
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