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Writer's pictureGary Moller

Am I being "Shadow-Banned"?

Updated: Apr 5

Or am I simply writing about things people are no longer interested in?


Here's a graph giving an overview of traffic to my blog over the last two years. Despite not putting much into promoting it, there was steady growth in traffic through to March 2022; then, there was a disturbing trend downward to historic lows. Facebook was consistently my best traffic source, followed by email marketing and then Google searches.


Visitors to GaryMoller.com over the last year, including sources

My question is this: "Why have I suffered such a dramatic decline in traffic?"


I want your answers in the comments section at the bottom of this article. Thanks.


There are many possibilities, including me not writing about what people are interested in or more competition from better writers and experts. Or, could it be that my blog is being "shadow-banned" by Big Tech?


Shadow banning, also called stealth banning, hellbanning, ghost banning and comment ghosting, is the practice of blocking or partially blocking a user or the user's content from some areas of an online community in such a way that the ban is not readily apparent to the user, regardless of whether the action is taken by an individual or an algorithm. For example, shadow-banned comments posted to a blog or media website will not be visible to other users accessing the site.


This next chart is for the year 2022. The growth in email marketing is promising. The average session duration remains consistent at about 12 minutes, which is good because it indicates people are reading what I write. Then, again, there is that disturbing drop-off in all traffic.


Website visits 2022 to GaryMoller.com

The following chart is for January through to April 2022, which is consistent with the overall trends in growth and interest in what I'm writing about is consistent as indicated by the average session duration. Then things start trending downwards from March, if not sooner.



Here is a summary of the most popular articles for 2022. There was huge interest in health scams, so I should have written more about that, but COVID mandates were unleashed upon us and the rest of the world, hence the shift in interest to COVID-related articles.


The most popular articles for 2022 written by Gary Moller

Then, in March 2022, the Big Drop in traffic began.


As an aside, the negative effect of shadow-banning on our business sales has been significant, but Alofa and I decided early on that being true to ourselves was with the financial losses. Ironically, what has saved us financially is the surge of people contacting us directly by email and phone seeking assistance with overcoming their vaccine injuries.


Was that drop in website traffic due to "COVID Fatigue", competition from better sources, shadow-banning, or a combination of all of the above? Please leave your comments at the bottom of this article; thanks.


Website traffic to GaryMoller.com july-december 2022

The drop in email marketing is an interesting one, as are the drops from Google and look at Facebook, which did ban me three times last year for spreading misinformation, as did LinkedIn and for the last six months. Facebook and LinkedIn are dead ducks, and Google is not much better these days. I'm unsure about Twitter but keeping a close eye on developments there.


I'm sure that some of the drop-offs have been due to many people having had enough COVID stuff, not just from me but from multiple sources, especially the Government, and I fully understand this and hold no resentment. It is tough for all of us to be under this constant barrage of conflicting information and appalling fear-mongering, and for some, it is best they take a break, but that does not mean they have given up on doing the right thing. Let's think of them taking some rest and recreation from the frontline.


However, I think the primary cause is Big Tech - Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and others - using sneaky techniques, including Facebook allowing our Government backdoor access to their platforms, presumably from March last year, to interfere with free speech.


My articles on "sensitive" topics no longer feature in a Google search; they are buried deep down in the search pages unless the search topic includes my name. Do this exercise:


Google: "here's your family COVID virus protection kit." see if you can find anything written by me on the topic. Then:


Google: "gary moller, here's your family COVID virus protection kit", and see what pops up. Nowadays, you will only find my work online through a direct URL or by searching with my name in the string.


I suspect one tool used by Google to hinder email marketing is sending many of my emails straight to the recipient's spam folders. I say this because the emails from bloggers that cover similar sensitive topics, such as vaccine deaths are habitually consigned to my spam folder. So, I'll assume that is happening to my emails as well.


We can conclude that modern-day censorship is sophisticated and comes in many subtle forms.



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10 Comments


Roger Hubbard
Jan 04, 2023

Yes a lot of people are finding out , that their em etc are being diverted , I just checked I have received all of yours [ nothing in spam etc ] but I also flagged yours as important .YES most people have heard enough about COVID , I keep reading what I can , because i dont believe anything from NZ government [ or any govt ] they are all on the same page . Someone became SIR recently [ should be in jail pushing the destruction and separation of NZ citizens . Gary keep up publishing known facts , it will take time but HONESTY will prevail , Elon Musk may publish what has been hidden , Cheers…

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Gary Moller
Gary Moller
Jan 04, 2023
Replying to

Thank you for the encouragement, Roger. Have you been nominated for a knighthood for services to your community? You deserve one.

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Kiwi Cam
Kiwi Cam
Jan 04, 2023

Over the course of the pandemic, many of us joined, signed up to and followed more and more resources each month. Some like me may have found that either they weren't able to keep up with it all or if they were, it was taking the best part of each day to consume all the material. Our inboxes and phone notifications were flooded with information and each of these often had links and references that take us down other rabbit holes.


About 3 mths ago I started asking the hard questions about each publication I was receiving. Will consuming this change my beliefs or help me in some way or will it just reinforce what I already know. Is i…


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Gary Moller
Gary Moller
Jan 04, 2023
Replying to

Cam, I am always appreciative of your thoughtful comments. You are correct in all of your observations. Fatigue and overload are definite issues. I read somewhere that there have been more than 300,000 research studies published on COVID in the last three years, so how can anyone keep up? Then there is the Ukraine war which we are allowed only one side of the argument. But what can we do? I'll keep plugging away, doing my nest to make sense of the health stuff for my readers. It is just a shame that COVID with related matters such as the Natural Health Products Bill, dominates everything.

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trudiyoga
Jan 04, 2023

Thanks Gary - I appreciate your emails and always read your blog (I’m a health professional and direct patients to it regularly too). Your emails don’t go into my spam folder though I use gmail; I don’t really use FB at all these days so aren’t sure what’s happened for you there, but I think it’s likely Google search will be “protecting the public” from you. I don’t use google as a search engine so haven’t had that problem! Best of luck, and thanks again - I love being able to refer people to you!

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Gary Moller
Gary Moller
Jan 04, 2023
Replying to

Thank you for your comments, Trudy. One thing I did not comment on in the article was the emergence of DUCKGo search engine now starting to pop up in my stats. It indicates people are shifting away from Google, but not many. I am guilty.

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sam.wreford42
Jan 04, 2023

I seem to have had very little pop up on my feed, I mostly get pictures if any (like when you went for world masters, rather than the blog link/articles) and wasn't until I went into your profile I could see you have posted a lot. I will go to Your page now, thank you for speaking the truth.

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Gary Moller
Gary Moller
Jan 04, 2023
Replying to

Sam, your observations help confirm my suspicions that, since about March last year, following the "Christchurch Call meetings, Big Tech began ramping up censorship of COVID and related information. Articles on unrelated matters seem to be less affected, but I'll say my overall search rankings are now abysmal.

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dpaddlerguy
Jan 04, 2023

I did try your google test....and sadly enough, you are right. To make this comment I had sign in with a new addy. Very dishonest and sad, and you are the honest word out there!

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Gary Moller
Gary Moller
Jan 04, 2023
Replying to

Hey, PaddyAddy, while you are here, what topics are you interested in me covering on this website?

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