If you’ve ever experienced a sudden drop in your TikTok engagement, like an over 50% drop in views, likes, or comments on your content, your account may have been shadowbanned by TikTok. A shadowban survey revealed that 3.2% of 1,006 social media users have experienced a TikTok shadow ban, which, although it represents a small percentage of TikTok’s over 1.6 billion monthly active users, can be an isolating and frustrating experience for users.
A TikTok shadowban may result from your posting violating content, partaking in spam-like activity, or using banned hashtags. When TikTok systems detect this behavior, it limits the reach of such content by reducing who sees it by removing it from the For You page and other pages that aid discovery.
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It can be important to check whether an account’s been shadowbanned when you buy TikTok accounts; sometimes the transfer of the account or your actions with your new purchase can cause it to become shadowbanned.
This article discusses what a TikTok shadowban is, why it happens, some signs you may have been shadow banned, and how to fix it.
What is Shadow Banned on TikTok?
A TikTok shadow ban is a silent ban placed on your account, where it limits or completely removes your posts from the For You page or under hashtags, reducing your content visibility and thereby leading to a drastic drop in engagement rates.
TikTok uses a mix of bot detection and browser fingerprinting to observe and run the platform, once it detects a violation, it flags these accounts as a safety measure, limiting your reach and sometimes resulting in a shadow ban.
How to Know If You’re Shadowbanned on TikTok
Users aren’t told when they’re shadow banned on TikTok, so it might take some time to notice a sudden drop in visibility, especially if you do not review your TikTok analytics regularly. However, there are some telltale signs, like a drop in engagement, not finding your content under hashtags you’ve used, and several others to watch out for, which we’ll discuss in more detail.
Your Engagement Suddenly Drops
If your content, which previously attracted a certain level of engagement, suddenly drops in how other accounts engage with it, your account might be shadow-banned. For example, if views drop over 80% compared to your average, and comments/shares also drop drastically or disappear completely.
Reduced Hashtag Reach
When you use hashtags when uploading your content, your content should appear under this hashtag when searched. However, if it doesn’t, chances are your content may have been restricted due to a shadow ban.
Analytics Finds
For creators who review their analytics, there are some pointers to look for:
- Traffic source changes: Because you no longer appear in the For You page, most or all incoming views now come from “Your Profile”, instead of the “For You” page.
- Total watch time declining: When your content reach is limited, your average watch time declines respectively.
It’s important to look at your content objectively, as there are other explanations for why your watch time might be declining that are not related to a shadowban.
It’s Harder to Upload Your Videos
Receiving the “Processing” or “Under Review” tag on any attempts to post content may mean your content has been flagged or limited, indicating a shadow ban.
You’re Not on the for You Page
The For You page offers creators the most visibility, and your content missing from this page often indicates a shadow ban. To confirm this:
- Ask your followers or friends to check for your content on this page.
- Searching for your account in incognito mode.
TikTok Shadow Ban Checker
Several services online market themselves as TikTok shadow ban checkers, like one from Commentify and Bulkoid. Many of these can help you do a scan of your recent posts and used hashtags (if your account is public), but cannot give you definitive answers.
Do not provide any TikTok shadow ban checker your login details or provide them with anything other than your username. Many of them will follow up with a sales pitch of “if you want to know more, pay us money!” This should be avoided, as they cannot give you any definitive answers.
How Long Does TikTok Shadowban Last?
There is no specified duration for how long TikTok places your account under a shadow ban, as it is based on factors like the type of violation, ranging from days for minor violations to weeks for those with major breach violations:
- Minor violations: Minor breaches, like light spamming or posting too frequently, can attract a shadow ban period of between 3 and 5 days.
- Moderate violations: Posting inappropriate content falls in this category and may last between 7 and 10 days.
- Severe violations: Breaching multiple guidelines and repeatedly violating these rules attracts a longer shadow ban period of over two weeks. Sometimes, repeated offences can also cause permanent account restrictions or a full ban.
Why Am I Shadowbanned on TikTok?
A shadowban on TikTok doesn’t happen for nothing, it’s done in response to posting content that violates TikTok’s terms of service. You could have been completely banned, but TikTok has decided to shadow ban you instead. Let’s talk about the things that could have gotten you shadow banned.
Posting Content That Violated Community Rules
While TikTok prides itself as a platform that promotes freedom of speech, posting content that promotes racism or bigotry, or targets others in the form of bullying, can lead to the platform limiting how far your content reaches other accounts.
Posting NSFW or Dangerous Content
TOS-violating content, of a NSFW nature, or related to drugs, violence, and other explicit content are restricted on TikTok. Sharing or promoting any content that falls into any of these categories can cause a shadow ban on your account.
Other topics that can result in your account being flagged include anything that promotes (or discusses) eating disorders or self-harm or content that promotes harmful behavior to other users. This is generally quickly removed from the platform and hashtags used to share such content are monitored or blocked.
Posting Content That Violates Copyright Rules
Posting content that contains elements like music or other audio that belong to others or infringe on TikTok’s strict copyright violations policy can cause TikTok to limit the reach of your posts.
Using Spammed Hashtags
While TikTok has no published list of spammed hashtags, using hashtags tied to hate content or other dangerous content can cause the platform to limit your content reach by removing it from the For You page. Also, TikTok sometimes limits the reach of popular hashtags to moderate and control its algorithm, so be careful when using these popular hashtags.
Exhibiting Automated Behaviour
Using bots or automated systems to create fake accounts and perform mass engagement activities signals to TikTok bot systems that your account is trying to game the algorithm system, and they try to stop this behavior by limiting your content reach through the shadow ban.
How to Get Unshadowbanned on TikTok
To get unshadowbanned on TikTok will probably take time, but there’s things you can do to speed it up. The first step of that process is to look at your content and figure out what you did to break the TikTok ToS. Once you’ve figured that out, you can apply one or all of the following steps.
Check Your Security Alerts
Start by going to your account’s Settings and privacy page, then going to Security & permissions and clicking on Security alerts. Then you can click on Security alerts again, which shows “Account activity over the past 7 days”. If that still shows “No unusual account activity detected in the last 7 days”, then you can click on the Contact Us link at the bottom. This will give you an opportunity to reach out to support.
Review and Delete Violating Posts
Review your recent posts to check for any content that violates any of TikTok’s rules and community guides. Content containing explicit or hate speech, or any copyrighted material, should be edited or deleted.
Avoid Banned Hashtags
Check what hashtags you’ve used in your recent content. It’s possible that some of them are either blocked/banned hashtags or spam-related ones. Check and remove the offending hashtags (or the content you used the hashtag for).
Reach Out to Support
Reach out to TikTok’s support to get an open ticket started. Here’s how to reach out to support:
- Go to your Profile > Menu > Settings and Privacy
- Click Report a Problem
- Select “Account and profile” > “Account issue”
Be as specific and clear as possible when describing your problem, and make it clear that you’re willing to do whatever is necessary to resolve the issue. You will likely get an automated reply that says “TikTok does not manually interfere with traffic or engagement.” Keep asking follow-up questions until you get a human agent. This will likely take a while and the human agent won’t give you clear answers. It’s possible you get the same message in reply over and over again, but if you persevere and keep the ticket open, you will eventually find a solution.
Stay Away from Posting
If you’ve removed the offending content, sometimes taking a break can help reset your account. This break involves staying away from all posting or engagement activity, giving the TikTok algorithm time to reassess your account, especially if you use automated tools.
Switch Devices or Network
Sometimes, the shadow ban placed on your account may be limited to a specific device fingerprint (device-level shadow ban), and switching devices or using professional anti-detect browsers that hide your unique digital fingerprint can lift the ban.
Post High-Quality Content
Being consistent with how you post and posting high-quality, guideline-compliant content at the right times can cause TikTok systems to re-evaluate and lift the shadow ban placed on your account.
Conclusion
A significant percentage of TikTok users, especially content creators depend on the reach of their content to grow and possibly monetize their profile. A TikTok ban does the opposite of this, limiting who sees your content and profile, thereby stifling partnership opportunities.
Key takeaways:
- The TikTok shadow ban occurs when you post content that violates TikTok guidelines and rules. This ban can last a few days or weeks, depending on the violation.
- The ban limits who sees your content, reducing your reach and engagement rates.
- Hate speech, explicit content, and other content that targets a small group fall into posts that violate TikTok’s guidelines and are common causes of the shadow ban.
- Removing violating content, switching devices, or staying away from the platform for some time can cause TikTok to reassess your account and lift the ban.
This TikTok shadowban may result from engaging in behavior that violates TikTok’s community guidelines, like posting content that promotes hate speech, bullying, or other harmful behavior. A common sign you may be shadowbanned is not finding your content under the For You page or a drastic drop in how users engage with your content.
While there is no clear duration for how long the shadow ban lasts, users can review and edit their past content to ensure no further violations, and contact the TikTok support team for additional support if necessary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Am I shadowbanned on TikTok?
If the engagement rate on your content reach seems to be reducing drastically compared to before, you may have been shadowbanned. A shadow ban on your account often means you may have posted content that violates TikTok community guidelines or copyright rules, used banned hashtags, or posted explicit content.
How to get rid of shadow ban on TikTok?
You can reach out to support, remove posts containing violations, avoid banned hashtags when posting content, and stop suspicious spam-like activity, such as excessive liking/commenting on posts.
How to know if you’re shadowbanned on TikTok?
Some common signs you’re shadowbanned on TikTok are if your engagement rates seem to be in free fall, and if your content disappears from the For You page.
