What is shadow banning?

Yes, it happens to me because of my job as a psychotherapist and pleasure activist who specializes in sexuality and it may actually be coming at the right time

I have been shadow banned on You Tube and now they’re trying to block me.

My content has been getting shadow banned for years on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and now they’re trying to take me down. And, it feels like the universe is talking to me.

By the time I post this my YouTube channel may be gone.

You see, I’ve gotten two strikes in 90 days. Three strikes you’re out.

A few weeks ago I posted a blog post about transitioning out of my role as sex therapist and a video that was from my long standing You Tube channel The Sex Talk Series. In that video I said, "This channel isn't going away." But, I may have spoken too soon. Read the story of my transition out of being a sex therapist here.

Shortly there after two of my videos were striked, ie marked as inappropriate because their content was about sex. Sexual content, not containing nudity but talking about sex, sexuality, relationships, educating about sex, penises, vaginas, orgasms, masturbation and porn will get you banned. Simply talking about these things . No actual nudity. No actual porn. Banned. They just don’t want real sex education on their sites. They disguise their reasons. They tell us it promotes trafficking. How does education promote trafficking? This is incorrect. The opposite is true.

Currently I am banned from uploading any new contect for two weeks, however, if I get another strike in the same 90 day period, I am out. They will delete all of my content. 

I have had my youtube channel since December 2012, 9 years ago, Jenoa Harlow and I started dishing about sex and relaitonships and how to make them more aligned with peoples lifestyles. I was inspired by my clients who were all coming to me for sex and relationship therapy and You Tube was a platform that allowed us to share freely and openly our ideas and opinions. 

But, if I am being honest. The shadow banning started in 2018. I started noticing that I was getting less and less views on my videos. What is shadow banning, you ask? They essentially limit access to your content. Don’t promote your content. They cock block you from new followers viewers from finding you. They make it impossible to grow your audience in any real way ultimately making it harder to educate people and spread the word. 

“Shadow banning, also called stealth banning, ghost banning or comment ghosting, is the practice of blocking or partially blocking a user or their content from an online community so that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned. For instance, shadow banned comments posted to a blog or media website will not be visible to other users accessing the site.” (source: wikipedia)

Large media conglomerates started to do this to sex educators, therapists, workers or just about anybody who posts content that is sexual in nature. It all started with SESTA/FOSTA, a law that was passed to supposedly thwart trafficking, but what it ultimately does is affect our ability as educators to post real, valuable information online. You can read more about SESTA/FOSTA here. 

And, I’ve gone “viral” as they say, several times only to have those videos, which were popular and something people needed to see, hear and talk about, taken down.

But it’s okay. This is a great reminder of WHY social media sucks and we should not rely on it for anything other than a few minutes of light hearted fun. I often talk about the downfalls of social media. It’s making us more anxious. More distracted. It’s doing a number on mental health.

But, many businesses rely on these social media sites and thats where this is a problem. My problem is minor, compared to the throngs of professionals who use online social media daily to make a living.

I will be migrating everything over to my site within the next few weeks and posting videos on my site only. And, this gives me even more reason to focus on the other things right now. Frankly social media is a distraction and posting every day even more difficult when your heart is not in it. So, I guess you could say they’re doing me a favor. And, this is a good reminder for everyone. Save your content. Turn it into a book, or a movie, or move it over to a paid platform (hello Vimeo!) and host it on your website. Do not let these people own your livelihood.

Sayonara youtube and tiktok. We had fun kid!

Click below to visit my youtube channel.….possibly in it’s final days!

www.thesextalkseries.com

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Mou