Are Meta, Instagram and TikTok shadow banning certain brands? Chouchou Intimates thinks so

A Sydney-based underwear label has been left disheartened by social media restrictions imposed on the brand, stating that Meta, formerly Facebook, and TikTok are restricting and impacting organic exposure for brands within the underwear, intimates and swimwear space, at a time when small businesses are already hurting.

Chouchou Intimates founder Tina Grasso said the brand, which is at a stage where attracting new customers organically is crucial to its growth, is only now able to attract new customers via ads, which Meta is happy to push, but then not supported by showing them the non-sponsored content. 

“As a business owner, it is incredibly disheartening to receive a generic notification informing you of account restrictions after so many resources are invested into these platforms,” she said.

“Creating engaging content is not only extremely costly, it is also time-consuming and requires constant dedication and work. After almost four years of organically building our profile and finally seeing results, it is a massive blow to know our main source of organic exposure, brand awareness, and community building may be impacted. 

“We are extremely strategic when it comes to ad spend as our budgets are far more limited than larger companies. 

“Product launches are key periods for us to invest in ads, so when they are banned or restricted we lose the opportunity to showcase these new products to potential customers and build momentum. In turn, this results in reduced levels of customer interest, decline in customer acquisition, lower conversion rates, and loss of revenue all impacting the product’s success.”

Grasso added that restricting organic exposure would have severe and lasting consequences on brands.

“Experiencing restrictions and having ads banned is nothing new for us as a lingerie brand, so organic exposure through our channels has always felt like a safe place and been our main way of increasing brand visibility and awareness,” she said.

“Instagram is our no. 1 social source, so being told our account and content will not be shown to non-followers and excluded from places such as explore and search, directly impacts our ability to reach and engage with potential customers who may have a genuine interest in our products. Not to mention, it hinders our credibility, as customers perceive organic exposure as more trustworthy and genuine, than discovering brands through paid ads. 

“Restricting organic exposure has lasting and severe consequences on our lingerie brand’s growth. I will need to explore alternative marketing strategies, which may not be as effective and will require additional resources, unnecessarily increasing the business’ overall costs at a critical time when I should be focusing more heavily  on expanding operations and new product development.”

Co-founder of underwear brand Nala, Chloe de Winter has also previously spoken about the major issues regarding censorship from all major platforms, penning an open letter on Linkedin earlier this year to the big bosses Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

Speaking to SmartCompany, de Winter said the brand’s Instagram account is repeatedly (and currently) shadow-banned.

“It’s difficult to quantify the impact that Meta restrictions have had as we faced roadblocks with Meta since the day we launched the business in October 2022,” she said.

“The Nala Instagram account is repeatedly shadow-banned (and is currently) which means people can’t find our organic Instagram page when they search us. Type in ‘Nala’ and we won’t come up! You need to type the exact Instagram handle wear_nala in order to find us. As a new brand, this has an enormous impact. 

“Further, half of our range is mesh which is sheer in nature, and Meta hasn’t got the ‘free the nipple’ memo. We have to be incredibly selective and only advertise using specific products. If they see a nipple, the content gets blocked and reported. 

“It’s worth mentioning that, of all the tech platforms, we have faced the least amount of issues with Meta! TikTok banned Nala from advertising on the platform, a ban which has now been lifted after eight months of appeals. And Google took four months to allow advertising of Nala. So at this moment in time, I’m team Zuck!”

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the term shadowbanned or shadowban refers to an act of a social media company limiting who can see someone’s posts, messages, or pictures on social media, usually without the person who has published them knowing.