Poor Mo Gilligan made a joke about florists and was swiftly ‘shadow banned’ from Instagram for ‘false information’ about US migrants.
The comedian, 37, was baffled when he was penalised by the social media platform following an innocent joke about florists raking it in on Mother’s Day.
Alongside a picture of stacks of cash, Mo joked: ‘Florist waking up this morning after charging people £25 for a bunch of flowers on Mother’s Day that normally costs £5.’
In a surprising turn of events – and what appears to be an error – Mo then shared a notification from his Instagram which said the post had been flagged as ‘false information’.
The notification explained, ‘This is similar to information third-party fact checkers say is false,’ while linking to an article headlined: ‘US customs officials not offering $750 for tips about migrants.’
Explaining the ban, Mo said: ‘I called out a florist for a laugh and now Instagram has shadow banned me for 3 weeks.’
Shadow banned means a user’s content or profile is made less visible to others.
This is Instagram’s method of reducing false information on the platform.
In its guidelines, the Meta-owned site explains how false information is made ‘harder to find by filtering it from Explore and hashtags, and reducing its visibility in feed and stories’ after being identified by their ‘third-party fact-checkers’.
Mo’s experience comes just two months after Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta were scrapping their fact-checkers on Instagram and Facebook in favour of X-style ‘community notes’.
In his video address over the change, Zuckerberg said it was time to ‘get back to our roots on free expression on Facebook and Instagram’.
This move came after Donald Trump criticised Meta’s fact-checking model as being censorship for right-wing voices.
After the announced changes, Trump praised Meta for having ‘come a long way’.
While the changes are being rolled out in the US, Meta says it has ‘no immediate plans’ to get rid of its third-party fact checkers in the UK or the EU.
Community notes were first adopted by Elon Musk’s X, and they see users of the platform adding context to posts, rather than the platform itself or any third-party moderators.
‘Fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the US,’ Zuckerberg said earlier in January.
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This announcement came four years after Zuckerberg gave testimony to Congress following the January 6 2021 Capital riots, fuelled by false claims the US presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump (something the President still insists).
In the speech, Zuckerberg called their network of fact-checkers ‘industry-leading’ – but now in 2025 he has dubbed them ‘too politically biased’.
Mo is currently touring Mo Gilligan: In The Moment World Tour across the UK.
He is heading to Brighton on April 2, before Plymouth, Cardiff, Bristol, Nottingham, Manchester and wrapping up in London on May 31.
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