You Can Afford to Be Controversial with a Website
Platforms can quietly stop showing your posts, or remove your account entirely, for what you say or for nothing at all. Here’s how a website keeps your work within reach when that happens.
Kanyi Mwangi
Picture a tax consultant in Nairobi.
Every year, when the Finance Bill comes out, she reads the whole thing and posts what it means for small businesses. She doesn’t just summarise it. She says what she thinks: which changes are fair, which will hurt traders, and what she’d do about it. Her clients love it. That clear, opinionated voice is why they hired her.
One year, her posts stop reaching new people. Her followers still see them, but nobody new finds her. Her account isn’t banned and she hasn’t received a warning. Her posts are simply no longer being shown to anyone who doesn’t already follow her.
She hasn’t done anything wrong. She has just been posting about a law.
Platforms decide who hears you
Since 2024, Instagram and Threads haven’t recommended political content to people who don’t already follow you. Meta’s definition covers anything potentially related to laws, elections or social topics, and it hasn’t said exactly what counts. A post about a new tax law could qualify.
Instagram calls this being “not eligible to be recommended”. Most people call it a shadowban. Your posts stay up, but nobody new sees them. You can check under Account Status in your settings.
You don’t even need to be controversial
Accounts also disappear for no reason at all. In 2025, Meta’s automated systems took down more than 635,000 accounts, including small businesses that say they broke no rules. A makeup artist in Western Australia lost around 48,000 followers weeks before wedding season and estimated her bookings fell by about 80%. There’s no phone number to call at Meta.
The link test
If your Instagram account is suspended, you can still message customers on WhatsApp, but a link to your Instagram leads nowhere. A link to your website still works, with your work, prices and opinions exactly where you left them.
A website is much harder to switch off
On a platform, an automated system can switch you off for something you posted, or for nothing at all. On your own website, it takes a much bigger reason, and usually a person making the decision.
Even if Google stops showing a page in search, the page stays open to anyone with the link. Hosting companies only step in at the extreme end, for illegal content, threats or hate. As anywhere, the law still applies, but a strong opinion about a tax law is well within it.
Who this matters most for
Most businesses don’t need to be controversial. A furniture maker or a bakery has little reason to post strong opinions, and for them, the bigger risk is being caught by an automated mistake.
For some businesses, though, opinions are the product. Consultants, lawyers, accountants, coaches, writers and anyone whose clients hire them for how they think. If your value is in saying what others won’t, then having a place where nobody decides whether your view gets shown is not a luxury. It’s where your work lives.
Use both
None of this means leaving social media. It’s still where most people will first come across you.
But you can change what each one does. Post a short version on Instagram or LinkedIn, and put the full argument on your website. If the post is limited, the full piece is still there. If the account disappears, the link still works, and you can share it on WhatsApp, in an email or in person.
On a platform, someone else decides who hears you. On your own website, anyone who comes looking can read all of it.