What You're going to Learn in This Article
- What is shadowbanned on Tiktok?
- How do you get shadowbanned on Tiktok?
- How do I know if I'm shadowbanned on Tiktok?
- What should you do next if you are shadowbanned on TikTok?
Do you think your TikTok account has been shadowbanned? First, don't panic, if you were permanently banned on TikTok, you would have received a notice. It is not uncommon though for users to become shadowbanned for posting content inappropriate for the social media platform. This can be thought of as a lighter punishment that having your TikTok account suspended permanently.
TikTok isn't just for kids to post dance videos anymore, many businesses rely on TikTok for traffic and conversions. Banned tik toks, much less a shadowban for them could be crippling. So, in this blog post, I'm going to show you how to find out of if you've actually been shadowbanned on the TikTok platform. I'm also going to show you how to find out why TikTok banned you, how long your shadow ban could last, and what to do to get your account back in good standing as quickly as possible.
What Is a TikTok "Shadowban"
What's shadowbanned on TikTok?
Shadowbanning (also referred to as "ghost banning" or "stealth banning") is a common practice among major social media sites and TikTok is no exception.
You aren't necessarily blocked from posting on TikTok, however, your reach is severely limited, and the algorithm will not introduce your channel to new people.
A TikTok shadowban (also referred to as a ghost ban) occurs when TikTok intentionally limits the organic reach of a user's account on the TikTok app as a result of some action by the user that they don't like.
Shadowbans are typically a result of an action that violates the community guidelines such as spamming, hate speech, harassing another TikTok user, or posting inappropriate content across the social media app but there are many other possible causes.
TikTok users are responsible for both their own TikTok videos as well as their engagement with other TikTok user's channels. Creating content
The duration of a shadowban varies based on the extent of the violations and the user's past history of committing similar violations. The standard duration seems to be about 1-2 weeks.
The degree of shadow banning might vary from minor to completely cut off from organic exposure on the platform and maybe even to your existing followers. You may or may not still appear in search results and in most cases, other users can still engage with your content, perform duets etc. This is what makes shadow bans so weird, they aren't always obvious. A shadowbanned account will likely be able to still search TikTok via various TikTok user lookup functions.
They are typically caused by a violation of TikTok's community guidelines. Due to the ever evolving nature of the TikTok algorithm (and social media algorithms in general), it's difficult to tell exactly what causes a shadowban but we can make some educated guesses based on the many real world examples we've seen.
The term "shadowbanning" has been around for as long as there have been social media algorithms. For example, Twitter users in 2006 had their content hidden from the public if Twitter deemed fit (read more here).
This is no different with TikTok. Due to the massive amount of exposure that is "free" from the platform, a real shadow ban can be very obvious.
Your TikToks might normally get 10,000+ views each and then, seemingly out of the blue, your latest videos are barely reaching 50 views a piece.
Other social platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, also may shadowban accounts. If one thinks they might be experiencing a shadowban on Twitter, one only has to conduct a Twitter search for one's own Tweets. If they aren't visible, one might be shadowbanned. An Instagram shadowban may be executed via undiscoverable broken hashtags on the explore page.
How Can I Tell If My TikTok Is Shadowbanned?
Just because it might seem like your organic reach dropped tremendously doesn't mean that you've been shadowbanned. There is no official "TikTok shadow ban checker", tiktok shadowban tester or remover tool out there (that would be amazing), but there is an easy way to tell for sure.
If you've received any traffic from the #foryou page on your recent content, your account is NOT shadowbanned.
Here's how to do the simple TikTok shadowban test...
First, open up a video that you posted AFTER you believe the shadow ban started that has been live for at least 72 hours TikTok mobile app on.
From the video click the "..." towards the bottom right.
Next click on "Analytics"
You will see the traffic sources on the analytics page. If you have even a single view from the #ForYou page, you're not shadow banned.
I want to give a shout out to YouTuber Robert Benjamin for showing me how to do this in this video.
What Causes A Shadow Ban On TikTok?
There are a number of reasons why TikTok might temporarily shadow ban your account from the platform. These are all laid out in the TikTok community guidelines, but the most common violations include...
- Posting pornographic or sexually explicit content
- Promoting violence or hate
- Any sort of "phobic" content such as homophobic or Islamophobic posts
- Being banned from a live video
- Being reported by other TikTok users
- Video points to an inappropriate 3rd party website
- Removing videos (they like things to be natural and want everything that you share to stay up)
- Making videos private
- Buying fake engagement
- Buying fake followers
- Using copyrighted music or copyrighted videos
- Using certain hashtags (whether fair or not)
- Exploiting a minor (made them afraid, put in danger or ashamed)
The common denominator here is that you're doing something that is harming the platform or its users and TikTok doesn't want to reward you with free views for it.
Repeat violations of the community guidelines can and will result in a full and permanent ban from TikTok.
How Long Does a Tik Tok Shadow Ban Last?
The average shadowban length, unfortunately, is growing. At the early stages of TikTok, it was around 24 hrs. Then it went to about 3 days. Then a week. Now they are up to about 2 weeks.
How Do You Get Rid of the Tik Tok Shadow Ban?
First, you need to understand why your account was shadow banned. Refer to TikTok's Community Guidelines if the things I mentioned above don't apply.
If you still can't find an explanation, you might be collateral damage to their bots. That is, your content is being throttled because an automation mistook something for a violation and banned you accordingly.
Once you've tried to locate the cause, do the following.
#1 Delete Any Content That May Have Been Against TikTok's Terms and Conditions or Community Guidelines
Go through the list above and see if you inadvertantly violated community guidelines in any way. Dig deep here, TikTok shadowbans aren't always logical and could have been a result of something their AI inadvertently labeled as spam behavior or some other violation. Look in places like your profile picture or any posted content that was out of the ordinary for your channel.
#2 Clear your TikTok Cache
#3 Continue to create content regularly (1x per day)
Yes. it can be frustrating posting videos into what feels like a gaping void, but this is important. Also, be sure that the content you post is clean and meets all of the community guidelines.
#4 Wait up to 14 days and Review Your analytics for For You Views
If after 14 days you still aren't receiving any for you page views, try to...
#5 Delete the App and Re-download
Then...
#6 Escalate to the TikTok Support Team
Again, it's still not time to panic. If you were permanently banned you would surely know about it. TikTok's shadowbanning techniques might change over time so your experience might be uniquely longer or shorter than what others have experienced.
Another one of the useful tips that multiple users reported to work when they were shadowbanned on TikTok was upgrading to a pro account. I haven't tried that method myself but it's been mentioned in multiple reddit forums I've seen how to get unshadowbanned on tiktok.
Let us know your experience with TikTok and shadowbanning down in the comments.
Am experiencing problems with my videos not being pushed out to the audience. Please help me to fix this issue 🙏.
Remove me from shadow Ban
Am in shadowban please 🙏. Help me to solve my problem. My videos are nolonger viewed because of shadowban.
Hello there. I left a comment on a creater/friends video. I got all kinds of bullying replies and name calling and accusations. Nothing they said made any sense. Soon after, there were several more people adding to it, later to be found as making comments on her videos that she made, still bullying and harrassing. I reported 73 of her comments from my friends video. Not one was a violation. Now, I don't get any comments, or likes on my comment. The likes were over 4000 in less than 24 hours. I can access the video from the nasty comments that were left. With all the nasty comments reaching about 300, it should not have stopped all the sudden. Is this a sign of shadowbanning? I have never posted a video, have followed less that 100, may have that many followers. I only get on TikTok to help and support people. I MOD for 2 popular creaters pretty regularly. Not sure what is going on.Sorry so long. I will be contacting TT tomorrow to demand they stop the person from slandering and bullying me, and want to be able to address this with them as well. I know they are not always truthful, helpful and not everyone cares but they are not getting rid on me.Thank you so much. Hope to hear back from someone soon. .
I’ve actually never had a reported comment returned as anything but “no violation,” which is absolutely crazy to me. As far as the post in question, I don’t think that’s shadowbanning as much as posts get initial surges and then tail off. If your future posts fail to get any initial reach, you might be shadowbanned.
I posted this morning and within the first 4 hours it was up to 55k views with 4,000 likes. The last 6 hours I have had only 2k views. It’s like it slammed to a halt. No clue
Wow, maybe it was reported by a couple people?
Pls no shadowban tiktok
My account is banned in TikTok this is my 8 account
Please like and copy link
Wenn man sich nit einen Shadowbanned bzw eingeschränkten Twitter Account bei a Tiktok anmeldet , also verifiziert, beschränkt einen Tiktok auch auf einen Account mit wenig Reichweite bis gar keiner. Ohne das man gegen die Tiktok Regeln verstoßen hat, reichen schon die Daten vom anderen Netzwerk. Der Support äußert sich dazu nicht.. Geht nicht auf die Problematik ein und mittlerweile werde ich vollkommen ignoriert. Videos kommen nicht auf ForYou .
Wenn man sich nit einen Shadowbanned bzw eingeschränkten Twitter Account bei a Tiktok anmeldet , also verifiziert, beschränkt einen Tiktok auch auf einen Account mit wenig Reichweite bis gar keiner. Ohne das man gegen die Tiktok Regeln verstoßen hat, reichen schon die Daten vom anderen Netzwerk.
I have been shadowbanned since July 22nd! I’ve tried everything to regain control but it just keeps getting worse. Now they’ll issue (unfounded) violations, I’ll appeal and win then Boom instantly receive 5 violations and am banned from commenting or posting! They have totally ruined my account. I went from hundreds of thousands of views, some with millions to barley getting 50. In the last 7 days, I’ve had 21 loyal followers reach out and messages me saying they thought I left Tiktok until they came looking for me! What do I do here? I’ve never violated community guidelines! I’ve received 3 violations and appealed each one, winning the appeal every time. They even gave me a violation for updating my profile picture. I started a new account and it’s even worse than the original. Tiktok has taken the fun out of this app. I’ve deleted over 9,000 following/followers to rid my account of banned accounts and spam accounts. Nothing is working. It get worse by the day! I am a member of a very popular group on Tiktok and we post weekly. It’s becoming very embarrassing to continue to participate with the group when my videos are getting 10 views!