Lupa Media, Ecuador’s most important fact-checker, faces a series of cumulative restrictions on TikTok —including shadow banning, content removal and feature blocking— applied with unclear criteria and without effective review channels, limiting the distribution of information of public interest.
Although TikTok notified users of some of these measures, the information provided was insufficient, ambiguous, or contradictory, making it difficult to understand why they were implemented and how to reverse them. The platform applied measures that align with the patterns described by OBSERVACOM for shadow banning cases : reduced reach, feature blocking, lack of clear criteria, inability to appeal, and decisions that remain unexplained for months.
The case is especially worrying because the sanctions fall on educational content and verifications in electoral contexts or international crises, that is, information produced by journalists who seek to combat disinformation by carrying out fact-checking, and whose results are punished by the platform.
The measures implemented include:
- Elimination or limitation of explanatory videos about deepfakes during the electoral campaign in Ecuador;
- Removal or limitation of an analysis of a viral rumor about the alleged death of Nicolás Maduro, categorized as “false information” by Lupa Media, with an appeal that remains unresolved after several months;
- Removal or limitation of explanatory content on disinformation related to the earthquake in Russia (without access to appeal mechanisms);
- Sustained and cumulative decline in organic reach and loss of “discoverability”, also reported by the audience;
- Suspension of the possibility of scheduling until 2035, declared “non-appealable” by TiCToc.
Some of these situations combine formal notifications with insufficient, inconsistent, or incorrectly applied justifications, making it impossible to know the real reason for the sanction and leaving the media outlet without tools to correct or prevent future restrictions.
In some cases, the restrictions operate as a form of covert censorship that keeps the content technically available but drastically reduces its circulation. Even when TikTok allows appeals, as in the case of the rumor about Maduro, the lack of response or verifiable arguments renders the review a merely symbolic process, without real effect.
The restrictions imposed on Lupa Media, such as the sustained reduction in reach, were not sudden but cumulative, directly impacting its visibility on that social network and its audience’s right to receive information. Furthermore, the suspension of advertising services until 2035 constitutes a disproportionate sanction lacking due process. This measure deprives the media outlet of essential tools for sustaining information campaigns during critical times.
Faced with a lack of response and persistent restrictions, Lupa Media decided to open a secondary account to ensure its continuity, even though this means starting from scratch after years of work and dedication invested in the original account.
The case again demonstrates how opaque moderation of digital platforms affects informational pluralism and restricts the circulation of content of public interest without offering basic guarantees to users.
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