We launched a lifestyle media & technology company to address bias against Conservatives in media… And then Twitter shadow-banned us John LeFevre Follow Jul 26, 2018 · 3 min read

A few months ago, we set out to start a new, conservative lifestyle media and technology company — Lincoln & Grant. The basic premise of the company (which you can read more about here) is simple:

There’s a war on conservativism and masculinity in America today. More specifically, the Left is demonizing men and traditional values — diminishing the vital roles they play in families and communities.

Everywhere you look, conservative men are being silenced on social media, belittled and mocked on television, banned on campus, and literally attacked in the streets. Even Lifestyle outlets like GQ and Esquire, that used to serve as resources to help men achieve their personal best, now reek of Progressive bias. (Video Link)

Something needed to be done about it. Our mission was essentially two-fold:

Our team will create original content, promote our content partners, and curate from the best conservative leaders and influencers. Through our proprietary technology and unique algorithms, we will promote the voices of content creators with our publishing partners, allowing for 20 million+ unique impressions daily.

And then this happened (almost immediately):

Despite updates from Twitter today, we are still shadow-banned

The mysterious shadow-ban, or silencing of conservatives on Twitter, has often been dismissed as speculation or paranoid, right-wing conspiracy theory. It took up until this week, thanks to an article from Vice (of all places) and a POTUS tweet for this issue to be taken seriously.

What makes our situation interesting is that:

We have been on Twitter since October 2016 It was not until we launched this initiative to address the tech/media war on conservatives in May 2018 that we were shadow-banned, somthing we were unable to formally confirm until this week, when the Twitter Shadowban Test went viral We can pinpoint the exact moment it happened with us. And it started with the sharing of a “conservative” meme from Reddit on Twitter.

Nothing in this post violates Twitter’s terms of service

The original tweet received decent traction and engagment relative to the size of our small, but growing audience. However, within hours, our engagment was reduced to zero. And it was exceptionally easy to measure:

Retweets and likes disappeared, even when the tweet was reposted We no longer appeared in the search bar Our @ replies no longer appeared in threads Engagment on subsequent posts (including content that had proven viral on other social media platforms) was reduced to zero (outside of our existing follower base) Our new follower growth ground to a halt

We immediately suspected that something was wrong, but again, were unable to confirm it until earlier this week.

To understand how debilitating this shadow ban is, watch this video starting at 1:08.

The shadow ban “puts you in a soundproof echo chamber… where you are seen only by existing followers… making you effectively invisible.”

What can be done about this? Apparently, nothing!

But, thanks Twitter! Thank you for confirming that the need for our inititative is more important than ever, and we will vow to keep fighting.