I don’t believe shadow banning is real, at least not in the way most people think about it. We all know algorithms prioritize content which means it pushes what it thinks people like over other content. Simply by definition not everything can be a priority which means the content not prioritized by the algorithm is going to be secondary but that doesn’t mean pushed down, banned or hidden. It confuses people because algorithms will forever have a level of mystery to them and they change frequently so it’s hard to understand how to be their priority all the time.