What Is TikTok Shadowbanning and How Can I Avoid It?

What Is TikTok Shadowbanning and How Can I Avoid It?

There’s a chance you’ve been shadowbanned if you’re getting low views and engagement on TikTok.

By gaining likes, views, and video shares, you can quickly become a TikTok Star. While TikTok can quickly propel you to fame, it can also deprive you of your audience—or worse, ban you from using the app entirely if you don’t follow the app’s rules.

This is referred to as shadowbanning. This article is for you if you’re a TikTok user who has never heard of it.

Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about TikTok shadowbanning, as well as some helpful tips for avoiding it.

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What Is a TikTok Shadowban, and How Does It Work?
A TikTok shadowban occurs when you have been removed from the platform or your visibility has been reduced without your knowledge.

As a result, your videos will no longer appear as frequently on TikTok’s “For You page” (FYP) as they once did. It’s like having the spotlight shine on you for a moment, then having it snatched away without warning.

Shadowbans frequently go unnoticed until they are pointed out by another user who happened to come across the video by chance.

Your audience and engagements will drop as a result of your posts. As a result, the number of likes, views, and shares decreases.

However, you might not be shadowbanned. Unfortunately, you may be naturally losing your audience.

If you have been shadowbanned, it doesn’t mean that you are permanently banned. A shadowban is only temporary.

Why Is My TikTok Shadowbanned?
TikTok hasn’t issued a formal explanation on its shadowbanning techniques.

However, what makes the most sense is that the app shadowbans people for creating TikTok videos that violate its community guidelines. These include producing content that contains nudity, drugs, hate speech, or even copyrighted music, fake news, and so on.

Although, wouldn’t it be fairer if TikTok just issued a warning at first instead? On the bright side, it seems to be a more effective way of disciplining content creators.

It has also helped in preventing permanent bans. These shadowbans often take up to 14 days at most, but sometimes end earlier.

If you want to check whether your account is shadowbanned, you can try out TikTok shadowban testers like AutoTokker.

How Can I Remove My Shadowban?
Here’s what you can do if your TikTok account got shadowbanned:
1. Uninstall and Reinstall TikTok
The first thing you should do is to delete your recent video.

If that doesn’t work, try uninstalling and then reinstalling your TikTok app. Sometimes, it could be that your app just needs an update to become fully functional again. Repost the video and ta-da! You got the engagement you need.

2. Switch to a Pro Account
Perhaps you haven’t been shadowbanned, and you instead need to focus on your analytics.

Similar to Instagram, TikTok provides its users a way to check out its analytics. By doing this, you can easily monitor how far your engagement has increased or dropped. Using this can also help you find out how to expand your audience.

3. Don’t Post Content That Goes Against Community Guidelines
Producing videos that violate TikTok’s posting guidelines may prolong your shadowban or even get your account permanently banned.

Apart from that, you might also want to lean on creating content that gets you higher up on the algorithm—hence gaining more views. You can figure this out by checking on your video analytics.

4. Avoid TikTok Spam Behavior
You might think that it’s harmless to raise followers by following an overwhelming amount of people on TikTok within a short period of time. Well, this kind of spam behavior can actually get you shadowbanned, so slow down on the follows.

How to Know If Your TikTok Account Is Permanently Banned
As mentioned earlier, continuously posting and sharing content against TikTok’s community guidelines is harmful to your account. Beyond getting shadowbans, you can also get permanently banned.

But how can you know if your TikTok account has been banned? It’s simple. The app will send you a notification informing you that your account has been banned. It will also explain the reason behind it.

Why Is My TikTok Account Permanently Banned?
Previously, TikTok had to pay a settlement of over $5 million because the app was apparently going against the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Since then, a lot of accounts have been banned to protect the privacy of children.

If you had no way to verify your age, despite being of legal age already, you might have gotten your account permanently banned.

Apart from this, you might have posted content that has gone against TikTok’s rules and community guidelines. If this has happened several times, then it might lead to a permanent band. By this time, it will be hard to recover your account. But don’t worry, there’s still some hope.

Here are two steps you can take to recover your banned TikTok account:

1. Contact TikTok’s Customer Support
After your account has been banned, you can reach out to TikTok’s customer support. From there, you’ll have to wait a day or two to get your account back after receiving an email from TikTok.

2. Verify Your Age
By providing TikTok with legal documents that support your claimed age, you have a good chance of getting your account back. Make sure that your valid ID is government-issued to help speed up the process.

Use TikTok Wisely to Build an Audience
It might seem easy to be a star and get viral on TikTok, but keep in mind to use the platform wisely. To get the most out of it, follow the rules and create content that resonates with your audience.

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