How Web2 Censors You and Your Content
- 1. Autocomplete Blacklist
- 2. Shadowbanning
- 3. Content Deletions
- 4. Account Suspensions
- Most Notorious Cases of Web2 Censorship
- Conclusion
Web2 is becoming obsolete and outdated as we progress to the future, with Web3 emerging as a better replacement for the censorious class. Web2 was born in early-2000s, when centralized websites like MySpace or Wikipedia took the class’ place. As the time passed, its reputation when downhill after they started censoring everything and everyone, even innocent content and users, taking down posts and accounts with the use of AI or algorithms, rampant harassment and cyberbullying, and an exodus of former Web2 users taking a refuge to Web3.
To emphasize the extreme danger of Web2, below is an overview of four elements explaining how they censor you and your content.
1. Autocomplete Blacklist
The most obvious element of Web2 censorship, they have a list of blocked words and terms for autocomplete search queries that can literally apply to everything, from products to even places of the world.
When the user types a certain term included in that list, it’s most likely that the autocomplete feature will vanish after entering it, making the feature mostly useless, unless it’s useful on Web3.
Any term can be blacklisted in their those lists, whether by a human or an algorithm, and there is no way to get rid of this kind of censorship. No matter what you search, this your first reason to leave Web2 for Web3.
2. Shadowbanning
It is an unneeded and pointless system, it allows it to obscure content and accounts from search results or algorithms, making these stuff harder to reach, and even grows the signs for you to leave Web2.
The Twitter Files, launched after acquisition by Elon Musk before being renamed to X, shows the engrossing signs of Web2 censorship that was once opaque before it was revealed to the public.
3. Content Deletions
One of the enduring reasons to leave Web2, and is no better than shadowbanning. They have access to their content database, and they have these actions: delete the post and warn the user. However, if there is too many content deletions, the account will be suspended or banned until they have to appeal the action.
Any content, even good things, can get deleted by human or AI moderators, and once it’s gone, you can’t repost it at all!
4. Account Suspensions
The final and one of the most Orwellian practices by Web2, they have access to what they can do with their users, and if they find out that they’re doing something wrong, they can suspend or ban it until they appeal one day, with little-to-no chance of ever allowing them to create new accounts or use third-party accounts to post their content.
Once your account gets suspended or banned, you lose everything unless you have archives of your content, and you can’t get it back, make a new account or use other’s accounts. If you try to go back to these platforms without appealing, they can ban you again for allegations of “ban evasion”.
Most Notorious Cases of Web2 Censorship
Below are five most notorious Web2 censorship cases:
- Ryan Movies Studios, one of my eight future film studios, was banned from Instagram when I tried to make an account for themselves in early-2020s.
- Personally, I got banned from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Truth Social, and BandLab in 2025, and from DeepAI in 2026. There was never any explanation for why I got banned from six Web2 platforms, despite following their rules.
- Geyser was banned from Instagram in 2026, and gave zero explanation about why they got banned. This has resulted from them migrating to Nostr and never reversing again.
- A lot of former YouTubers got demonetized or terminated for their good content, after the introduction of the so-called “advertiser-friendly” policies, and has caused a lot of them to move to alternative video-sharing platforms, like Odysee for example.
- A similar situation happened to former Twitch streamers, who were got banned for their same innocuous actions, and has led to them migrating to other platforms that have live-streaming capabilities.
Conclusion
The decline of Web2 is one of the reasons Web2 refugees and Web3 natives exist, and after reading the elements you will have to plan transitioning to Web3 to escape Web2’s paltry practices that continues today, and you have to watch Web2 disappear from everywhere.
Once you move to or become a native on Web3, you have full control of what you post and your account access, and monetization uses most often cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana, which are digital currencies that are protected with a cryptography to deter counterfeiting and fraudulent transactions.
This article was copied and pasted from my original Paragraph post.
