Here is a VERY common occurrence of Twitter’s censorship, called “shadow banning”:
Links to Tweets underneath the screenshots
Tweets are hidden behind “Show more replies” to not be immediately visible to viewers who are too busy and rushed to spot Tweets. In my case, Pret does not want my writings visible.
2nd Tweet is HIDDEN from the public on that feed, but visible via @XpretXpert’s Tweets & Replies feed.
3rd Tweet is behind “1 more reply”:
3rd Tweet LINK is visible at first, but will not be seen when clicking on “Show more replies”. Twitter RIPS the feed apart which is explained on the Shadowban.eu site as, quote: “threads are completely ripped apart by hiding reply tweets of the affected user to others”. So, when you click on “show more” etc. you seem to hit a brick wall, you can a “1” reply, but you can’t get to it. The feed starts back from the top, but you can’t get to the hidden Tweet.
Here is the 2nd Tweet that has been hidden in the name of no “public interest”:
2nd Tweet LINK via @XpretXpert’s Tweets & Replies feed. These Tweets are from years of experience as a Team Leader during the Christmas Season where items are NOT ordered by shops, but Pret as usual blames the supplier in response to customers’ queries why certain items are not available.
Behind the “This Tweet is unavailable – Learn more”, Twitter gives this explanation, quote:
“Placing a Tweet in violation behind an interstitial: We may allow controversial content or behavior which may otherwise violate our rules to remain on our service because we believe there is a legitimate public interest in its availability. When this happens, we limit engagement with the Tweet and add a notice to clarify that the Tweet violates our rules, but we believe it should be left up to serve this purpose. You can read more on how we review Tweets that may be in the legitimate public interest.”
So, Twitter defines what is of “public interest” and what not. But BECAUSE this would be of “public interest” to see the reality beyond the dishonesty, Pret tries to avoid this getting out. My experience of 10 years in Pret shops, with about 8 years as a Team Leader. I worked 8 Christmases doing the ordering for various Pret shops.
Ladies and Gents, THIS is modern-day censorship called “shadow banning”.
And in this case it looks like this, which will be partly in the red (shadow banned / some Tweets hidden) for about 24 – 48 hours from the time of the ban:
On Twitter is OPEN PORNOGRAPHY, where people can tweet their bits and boobs, and explicit language. But my Tweet has been censored by Twitter on Pret’s behalf.
And here’s a similar message I posted to his initial post:
An undercover report on Twitter shadow banning and how HUMANS, not only bots shadow ban on purpose and choose Tweets they don’t want to be seen. Most banned Tweets are regarding Trump, political propaganda etc. I am not for Trump and right-wing politics, but it is censoring free speech and is completely up to the Twitter people what they want to see or not. And the nasty thing about this is that most people who are secretly censored / shadow banned don’t even know they are! The video explains and I also explain how this works in the audio player interview at the bottom of this page. The video starts with a Twitter staff member saying on hidden camera regarding hiding Tweets and accounts they don’t like or disagree with: “We’re trying to get the shitty people not to show up …”
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather starve and speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review: 1. “Late Night Girl’s” Story with Pret and 2. Pushing Back Against Pret.
Thank you for reading/listening.
I decided to do an extra blog entry about the issues of “shadow banning” on Twitter and other social media platforms. Many people are shadow banned / censored and don’t even know about it. Too bad for Pret A Manger, because I planned to phase out my Pret “rants” to a great degree but then these shadow bans are like a reminder that I am not doing anything wrong, and the public needs to know how it is behind the PR[et] facade that I survived.
As the whole subject of shadow banning is still relatively new to me this blog entry will evolve and change, as I gather more information adding to this post. Every change I will start with: UPDATE and then the date with it as I don’t have the strength to do it all today. But really want to start on this to draw people’s attention to this issue that is so rampant on various social media services. I am a “regular customer” to shadow banning and should get a loyalty card! I am being banned everytime I post a very direct tweet regarding some dishonest Pret statement or my knowledge from how it is behind the scenes.
I get banned especially when I write about the Mystery Shopper and how staff are drilled to be smiley, happy and friendly ALL day in a highly intense, fast-paced and stressful work environment. And no-one stops to think for a moment how this can be, except very few people. Staff are pressured to serve each customer within 1 minute etc. Customers go on Twitter to commend shop staff, which is great, but they don’t know what really is behind this “happiness” while team members work under fear management, depression, low pay and so on.
“Shadow banning (also called stealth banning, ghost banning or comment ghosting[1]) is the act of blocking or partially blocking a user or their content from an online community such that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned.
By making a user’s contributions invisible or less prominent to other members of the service, the hope may be that in the absence of reactions to their comments, the problematic or otherwise out-of-favour user will become bored or frustrated and leave the site.[1][2]”
What I don’t like with this definition, though is that the author of this Wiki entry calls the shadow banned user “problematic” as if to say they are a problem or trouble makers, while some may be, but many raise awareness. And while I don’t agree with certain political ideologies, as long as they don’t call to arms or promote violence or discrimination, freedom of speech should be protected and respected. The option to block individual users is always there. And funny enough, in Pret’s case, neither Pret nor its CEO block me! The reason for this is partly because their mentality has always been to collect anything they can use against people in case of a court case. And no joke, the CEO also has learned a few things that I suggested while I still worked in Pret and has taken the credit for it.
Pret is also regularly asking customers for input. But while this seems noble to involve customers in bringing their ideas, I pointed out somewhere else that it is very naive when Pret asked the public for recipe ideas that many people are happy to give recipes away without first having patented it. Thus Pret is making millions on the naiveté of customers! 😀
And I am not blocked so that Pret stays informed about my writings on them. Be my guest Pret A Manipulator!
Twitter lying about not shadow banning:
Quote: “We do not shadow ban, you are always able to see the tweets from accounts you follow (although you may have to do more work to find them, like go directly to their profile).”
In the same sentence they say they don’t and do shadow ban!
My own explanation:
First of all, many other social media platforms shadow ban and to my shock Facebook even deletes links to my blog in PRIVATE messages!! This goes too far and I am looking into options how to approach this, as a normal mail they often ignore. Twitter has ignored my contacting them regarding my notifications of my second account having been completely wiped out!
This link was just a link to my blog. I was able to do this many times before, but since recently, especially since I am aware of shadow banning, FB deleted many of my Facebook posts and some mails. But it doesn’t help, my message is still getting out. But deleting PRIVATE messages goes too far. I’m not a terrorist to be needing such censorship.
Also, I started another Facebook account with a brand new hotmail email address. But Facebook’s bot must have connected the new account to my LateNightGirl “campaign” and when I logged into my NEW and so far unused hotmail account connected with the new FB account, hotmail prompted me to enter my phone number as I supposedly sent a lot of emails. But I haven’t even sent ONE email as the account was a few days old and only in use for FB. So, FB must have informed Microsoft and they all are criss-crossing information! Unbelievable! You are made to be the villain while you raise awareness on toxic companies. Amazing.
Also on my second Twitter account I am since yesterday always prompted to verify with the phone number I signed up with. Usually when this happens it is because I sign in from another computer (different IP address) and Twitter gives the last two digits of my phone number. But since yesterday it seems that Twitter tries to confuse me to see if I have another phone number as it does not give me any digits:
Other Tweeters complain that from their several thousand of followers, hundreds disappeared without any reason. This is the tip of the iceberg that has been going on for years with the majority of people not even knowing this is happening.
But in my own explanation, shadow banning is like you are sitting behind a mirrored glass in a police investigation room, you can see people, hear them talking, but they don’t see or hear you. I found a perfect GIF to describe this:
So, basically the bottom line is that you tweet your heart out, click “like”, Retweet (RT), follow, comment etc. but your followers don’t get notified. People can only see your tweets when they go directly to your “Tweets & Replies”. But who does that except a new person coming across some tweets and is curious what you write about. It would never cross the minds of your followers to go to your Tweets directly, for what, they know they get notified when you tweet, “like” something, not knowing you are banned and behind this wall. Also, others are not notified when I send a direct message (DM) and vice versa. Other times I and they are notified, but I am not notified of new “likes” and responses to my Tweets… partly shadow banned and seems at random. Whoever is doing this just seems to have a laugh deciding one day to ban my likes, other times my DM etc.
Fellow blogger, Niki Flow put it in brilliant words, quote:
“This shadow-banning is nothing more than a loophole around freedom of speech and an abuse of power to silence people whose opinions differ from whatever engineer institutes this ban. Even more chilling, this banning is almost certainly being purchased and used to whitewash reputations and cover corruption.”
From her own blog entry in her comments section: Week 3 Goals
Please check out her wonderful blog and support her, she’s a great inspiration and support to me.
So, on the bans, before I was told that I was shadow banned, I’d notice that my Tweets weren’t visible when I was logged out after having clicked on some Twitter links from my blog for example. I didn’t see my response Tweets to a post on Twitter, I only saw them while logged in. This feels like you’re going mad!! Niki Flow also rightly pointed out that this should be made illegal.
Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey’s hearing in Congress. This part is regarding shadow banning Democrats more than Republicans. The funny thing on Twitter is when I read the below hashtags that ALL sides are shadow banned! So, Trump supporters complain about Trump’s tweets being banned, Democrats complain they are being banned and it really seems like the above hidden camera investigation, where one of the Twitter staff says that he bans when he feels offended from a Trump content for example. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do NOT support Trump, but the way they censor is completely at their own discretion. Now this is the real serious stuff on China, Russia, political parties etc.
This tester is outdated and needs to be reworked. I had conversations with one of the developers and they are aware and are working on an updated version as Twitter is a few steps ahead of this. I was happy to point out a few things on my own shadow bans which they didn’t even know was happening. So, this helps them develop a better program.
I see it in this way now, being shadow banned is more of an honour than a penalty for me. For one, I’m not alone, this happens to so many people if you take a look at the below hashtags on Twitter. And most importantly my Tweets, posts, writings are having an impact. As I am telling my story, not lying, having all the written evidence, and confront Pret and the CEO directly on Twitter, all they do via Twitter is to try and silence me. Well, thank you Pret for admitting that you have a lot to hide.
I also must say that this whole thing, writing my heart out and being shadow banned, has greatly relaxed me. Where I would normally get really anxious, nervous, angry and hectic in the past, especially during the darkest times in trauma, I am now just “chilled” and think, oh well, another ban. Yawn!
And I keep writing in a much more relaxed way. There comes a time when nothing matters anymore.
Please pass on the issue of shadow banning to everyone you know as this is still too hidden. It doesn’t need to be this blog entry, can be only the undercover hidden camera investigation on YouTube, Wiki etc. But please pass this issue on.
Thank you for reading, keep checking periodically as I’ll update with any new issues, as well as precise examples of my own bans with Screenshots, links etc. I will indicate any updates in the subject line with the date I added new info.
Have a wonderful ban-free time, and should you be banned, put your head up and keep speaking out as long as it is for information and the best and well-being of people and animals!!
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather starve and speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org, LateNightGirl.page.tl and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
I am “forced” to put this into a blog entry due to shadow bans happening again. Please ignore the 2nd October 2018 date on the left. I am “recycling” old unimportant blog entries, as every new blog post I publish is bookmarked by a bot in a certain country, and shortly after I am also often shadow banned as my blog is linked to Twitter, FB etc. depending on what the post is about.
The below Tweets led Twitter to shadow ban (censor) 3 accounts on behalf of Pret A Manger to avoid bad press and the truth being told.
This means that as soon as Pret gets wind of a tweet that may lift the lid on their practices, they report to Twitter for the account to be banned where the tweets are hidden from the public. To the account everything looks normal, but in reality all tweets, likes, RT’s are hidden from the public UNLESS people go directly to the Tweet itself, but who would do that without the knowledge that this tweet even exists! So people are fooled and “What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve over” or out of sight out of mind. Simple.
It is mainly the “nitty gritty” tweets that has Pret via Twitter censor me so the public won’t find my blog here. The reason why Pret does not respond to the Tweets and let’s Twitter censor me is because I declined 4 settlement offers if I remain silent, never go to court etc. after being bullied during bereavement under Pret’s toxic HR department and CEO Clive Schlee’s leadership.
The following got Twitter to ban on behalf of Pret as a paying customer, censoring free speech to avoid the public being made aware of what is really going on behind the shiny PR[et} facade.
To Nick Honey and Clive Schlee, CEO of Pret:
Regarding separating former homeless workers into their own shop leading to blog entry of countless staff complaints. Ban mentioned in new Tweet.
This Tweet reached a person before the ban happened, and they kindly responded, even copying in the press, but not sure if he will get notified, as during a ban people are not notified of a response by the banned account. But thank you @MikeParcej
I have to say it does take a person with a certain kind of knowledge to look beyond the forced smiles of Pret staff!
So, ladies and gentlemen, this is Pret A Manger for you, hiding 2 customer deaths from the public, covering up with lots of free coffees/products and PR how it really is behind the “happy” facade, bullying staff even during bereavement. The shadow bans continue, and so will the publications.
Thank you for reading and to those of you who care, RT, stand up, speak out etc. thank you! All I ask is to please look deeper and closer like Kat Timpf did. Staff suffer but are silenced through fear management and current staff wrote to me that they will receive a disciplinary or get dismissed if they publicly speak out again as they did before.
For an overview of important blog entries of my experience in Pret A Manger, please visit“My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The arrow next to each heading will lead directly to the post. Thank you for reading.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 
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