Some Instagram posts from former “The Mandalorian” star Gina Carano are now being labeled with COVID-19 disclaimers, according to multiple reports.
- Both We Got This Covered and Bounding Into Comics reported that Carano’s Instagram story posts came with warning labels for COVID-19 information. Some of the posts did not mention COVID-19 at all, which could suggest there was a glitch from Instagram because Carano has previously shared messages about COVID-19.
- Carano shared an image in which Instagram told her that one of her posts did not meet community guidelines as well.
Was Carano ‘shadow banned’ from Twitter?
The Instagram change comes weeks after Twitter made some changes to how people can find Carano. As I wrote for the Deseret News, Carano’s account does not appear after an initial search for her name on Twitter. You have to click over to the “People” tab to find her.
Some Twitter users have referred to this as a “shadow ban,” according to MMA Mania. This is where Twitter doesn’t ban your account outright, but hides your account in a way where it becomes more difficult to find.
Twitter denied it has such a ban in place, though, saying you can always find tweets from accounts you follow. But the social media company does rank tweets in its searches, which might make it harder to find specific tweets or personalities.
- “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). And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology,” Twitter’s policy reads.
- “We do rank tweets and search results. We do this because Twitter is most useful when it’s immediately relevant,” according to Twitter’s policy. “These ranking models take many signals into consideration to best organize tweets for timely relevance. We must also address bad-faith actors who intend to manipulate or detract from healthy conversation.”
Carano’s social media history
Carano has received heavy backlash on social media in the past, which led to her eventual exit from Lucasfilm. She has made comments against the COVID-19 vaccine, Democrats, face masks and voter fraud, among other political issues, as I wrote for the Deseret News.