What is a TikTok Shadow Ban?
A TikTok shadow ban is when TikTok decides to quietly limit the visibility of your content without telling you.
If you ever notice less engagement than normal, you might be experiencing a shadow ban.
Your videos stop showing up on the “For You” page, they don’t show up in hashtag searches, and your likes, comments, and views become low. Even your followers may see less of your content in their “Following” page.
If this has happened to you, don’t fret. We will take a look at what may have caused this and how you can possibly fix it.
Reasons for Getting a TikTok Shadow Ban
TikTok uses a shadow ban as a security measure to penalize accounts that repeatedly break its rules and fail to follow the community guidelines. The most common violations include:
1. Posting adult content
Sharing content that is not suitable for minors and that violates TikTok’s community guidelines, such as nudity, sexually explicit content, violence, and drugs, can result in being shadowbanned by TikTok, and your videos may be less likely to be shown.
2. Bullying, harassment, and hate speech
Content that includes bullying, harassment, and hate speech is against TikTok’s community guidelines and may get flagged and hidden. TikTok is against promoting hate speech and bullying, so if your posts contain something like this, it may cause your account to be shadow-banned. Also, be careful of what you comment as well, because TikTok checks that as well.
3. Promoting dangerous acts
Content promoting dangerous acts such as overeating, suicide, violent extremism, self-harm, and dangerous challenges is removed and blocked in reach to protect other users.
4. Posting copyrighted material
TikTok is against posting content that you do not have the copyright to. If you post content for which you do not have the right, TikTok will mute your videos, reduce your reach, or even take the content down completely. As a general rule, avoid posting content or using music that you do not have the right to. Always stick to the music from TikTok’s licensed library.
5. Using banned or flagged hashtags
TikTok does not publish a list of “banned” or “flagged” hashtags that people should avoid. Rather, TikTok flags some hashtags that may be associated with spammy behaviour or inappropriate content. Hashtags related to hate speech or adult content are easily flagged, and if your content contains these hashtags, your account may be shadow-banned.
It’s better to stay away from hashtags like these. Instead, stick to known and popular TikTok hashtags to help your content grow.
6. Spammy behaviours
Spammy actions, such as following or unfollowing many people at once, using bots, or creating fake accounts to boost your engagement, can put your account on the shadow ban list very quickly. Actions like these generally hurt you more than they can help.
So, stay away from spammy actions and be genuine in your interactions.
7. Posting too frequently on a new account
Posting too frequently on a new account is also considered spammy behavior by TikTok. To avoid this, you have to “warm” your account first. That is, do “human-like” things before you decide to start posting frequently.
Start by commenting genuinely on other people’s content and posting less frequently before you finally increase your frequency.
8. Automatic content moderation or glitches
Sometimes, you may be doing everything right, but your account may still be flagged and shadow-banned. This is because content moderation is done automatically by AI and it may glitch and confuse your behaviort with spam-related behaviour.
How to Know If You’re Shadowbanned on TikTok?
TikTok does not give you a notification saying that you have been shadow-banned. There isn’t a clear-cut way to know this.
But there are some things that you can do to figure out if you have been shadow-banned or not. Here is how you can figure out if you’re TikTok account is shadow-banned:
1. Sudden Drop in Engagement
Your videos used to get hundreds or thousands of likes and views, and now suddenly, you have 100 views or even 0. This might indicate being shadowbanned. Especially it happens to every content that you post.
2. You don’t show up on the For Your Page
You can experiment with this by asking a friend who follows you to check if they see your stuff on their “For You” page.
If they don’t, then you might be shadowbanned.
3. Upload Issues
Your videos might get stuck in “processing” or “under review” for a while, even though the internet connection is good.
You might be shadowbanned.
Your videos do not appear in hashtag search results
How to Remove TikTok Shadowban
1. Remove the possible rule-violating content
Just try going through your recent posts and remove anything that might have caused the ban.
2. Follow TikTok community guidelines
By following these guidelines, the shadowban curse will probably be lifted, and your engagement will go back to norma.l
3. Stop posting for a few days
To prevent the algorithm from thinking you are spam, stop posting for a few days, then resume.
4. Post Smart
You might want to consider posting in a safer way, which means avoiding restricted content and banned hashtags.
Also, prioritize quality rather than just quantity.
5. Don’t spam in the comment sections
Spamming in the comment sections is a sure way to get banned on TikTok. So, refrain from mindlessly spamming the comment sections and engage genuinely with intention.
6. Be patient
Sometimes your content may have just been misflagged and by just being patient, the ban may be lifted.
How Long Does a Shadowban Last?
Since the shadowban isn’t a verified term by TikTok themselves, it is not known exactly how long it lasts.
But, according to research from creators who have been shadowbanned, it can take up to 2 weeks (14 days).
