What Does Shadow Banned Mean on Tik Tok? How to Prevent it?

Today we are going to talk about shadowbanning (ghost banning or stealth banning) on a well-known platform called TikTok.

Like all other social media sites, this one also has community guidelines that if you break you get banned.

Here we are going to talk about that and a couple of other things you need to look out for if you want to avoid TikTok shadowbans.

What Does Shadowbanned Mean and How It Can Hurt Your Pro Account?

Basically, TikTok shadowban is when TikTok purposely decreases the number of views you get on your videos without any prior given notice.

Shadowban mostly occurs after a report.

This doesn’t only happen on TikTok, you can get shadowbanned on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram as well.

TikTok hasn’t released a formal explanation of its shadowbanning techniques. Below I’m going to write down what to avoid if you don’t want to get shadowbanned.

Reasons for Shadowban

1. Community guidelines violation

2. You can get banned for using a VPN

3. Faking engagement

4. For buying fake engagement

5. For mass private videos

6. By showing spam behavior

7. For posting inappropriate content

8. For getting banned or kicked from TikTok live

9. For using copyrighted stuff both live and in videos

The main reason why the TikTok app uses shadowban is that it’s trying to protect itself.

If TikTok lets a bunch of copyrighted information on there, both in live streams and in videos, that can be a huge problem for them to deal with.

If you are a well-established TikToker with lots of subscribers you are probably making money on Tik Tok from endorsements.

Just think if you get banned you will lose your endorsements. Businesses rely on social media for good marketing. Simply by following the rules you can avoid this hard time.

TikTok’s Community Guidelines Violations

Also if you have a bunch of community guideline violations in your TikTok account it also works in their favor.

They suppress the number of views that you get because you are putting up the following content that breaks their guidelines.

And above everything, they strive to make TikTok a safe space for everyone.

Thus, first and foremost, you as a tiktok user and other users need to make sure to avoid doing everything that you just read above.

My suggestion for you is if you get a community guideline violation, appeal it. In most cases, the violation is going to get overturned and you won’t get a strike against your account.

Note: Any misleading information, if they deem your content inappropriate, or anything on the related topics (that breaks community guidelines) is monitored by the TikTok app.

That being said, if you appeal it and you lose then you can delete the recent video or private it.

Do not, and I really mean do not do that before the appeal. If you delete or private the videos that can end up hurting your account way more if you don’t go through the appeal process.

If you don’t want to get banned on live make sure that you are not naked on the live stream and make sure you are not playing any copyrighted music or videos.

Even if you are not really exposing yourself you can be considered inappropriate and get kicked off. Remember it’s the AI that kicking you out.

Note: In addition to that, make sure you don’t endanger any animals or human beings on the live stream. I have seen people getting shadowbanned on TikTok for that, or just simply for cursing too much or giving any type of hate speech.

Deleting Videos, Private Videos, and Fake Followers

Regarding deleting and private videos. Guys, please do not do this.

Like I said earlier, if you get a copyright violation or if you lose an appeal you can delete that video but other than that don’t delete private videos.

When it comes to buying followers or fake engagement and things like that, just simply don’t do it guys.

There is so much organic reach on TikTok I don’t know why anybody would buy fake engagement or followers when they are free.

Just post your videos on the for you page and get exposure to people that are out there and take advantage of that.

I don’t know why would anybody buy fake engagement or followers on TikTok when it’s so easy to get those real metrics.

In addition to that, if you do any of that stuff TikTok is just going to suppress you from getting any views on your TikTok videos in the future.

Just focus on creating content and posting content that people find entertaining and your channel will grow through time.

Common tip: By creating quality content you will gain video shares and your channel will grow. If your content is dull and not entertaining you will naturally lose to other TikTokers.

You can always search for videos on how to improve your content’s reach, don’t rush take your time, Rome was not built in a day.

How to be Sure that You are Shadowbanned?

So, now that you know what you need to avoid in order to not get shadowbanned and in order to keep your account in good standing with Tiktok I want to mention a couple of other things.

First, if you get zero views on your videos that does not mean you are shadowbanned. It just means that your video is under review, leave that video up there, which can take up to 72hrs.

Also if you just created a new account or if you use VPN, those things can make you get zero views also.

The only way to know if you are shadowbanned is the following.

If you post a video and it’s a good video, and it gets the watch time that TikTok demands with this current TikTok algorithm update and you get 0% views from the for you page then you are shadowbanned.

That being said, the TikTok analytics are not updated in real-time, so you are going to have to wait for 72 hours to know whether or not you are actually shadowbanned.

1. If your video is less than 15s long with 100% watch time.

2. If your video is from 16 to 30s long with over 75% watch time

3. Or if your video is over 30s long with 50% watch time

If these are your numbers and you got 0% of your views from the for you page then you are shadowbanned.

But if you get even a 1% of the traffic you are not shadowbanned, you just need to create content that is overall better than your previously posted content.

Like this, you can also easily monitor your activity and search results and see how good your posts are actually doing.

How to Fix Shadowban and How Long it Lasts?

First of all, shadowban is not permanent, therefore you will not be permanently banned. So, how to get unshadowbanned tiktok? The best advice I can give is to just simply wait.

Unfortunately, TikTok shadowban is now lasting longer than it ever has before in history.

Back in the past shadowban used to last for a short period of time a few days, then it went to seven days, then it went to 2 weeks, and now it can last up to a month.

The reason for the longer shadowbans is that it’s a lot harder to get shadowbanned on TikTok nowadays than before.

That being said, if you broke all the rules that I mentioned throughout this text then you could be shadowbanned, and there is only one course of action to fix it.

First, for the next 30 days, you need to avoid doing all the things that I mentioned above.

Every time that you get a community guideline violation, copyright, get kicked off a live stream, delete a video, mass private videos. Anything like that it’s going to prolong the 30-day sentence.

Thus, if this happens to you, make sure to avoid breaking any other rules. Secondly, you should only post once a day if this happens to you.

By doing this you are trying to prove to TikTok that you are going to start putting out quality content again.

Content that they can put on the for you page to prove that they can trust you as a creator and push your stuff out to other people.

Therefore, upload only once a day and make sure it’s bangers only. I would strongly recommend reposting your best pieces of recent content or only posting stuff that you think is going to get viral.

Thus, if you are not hitting those watch time metrics then you are not signaling to TikTok that you are putting out quality content.

That means that they are just not going to put your stuff on the for you page ever again.

A couple of useful tips:

Way too many creators get shadowbanned and they do two things.

First, they put out a bunch of terrible content which actually continues to kick them back into being shadowbanned.

Secondly, they take a really long break which again makes TikTok less likely to push their stuff.

By avoiding this kind of behavior you are going to solve your shadowban and have in mind that you can’t lift the ban, only wait for it to reach its end.

If you get through your first week you are practically finished.

Remember it can take from at least two weeks to 30 days for this to happen just follow the rules I have instructed and you will be good to go in no time.

Conclusion

I sincerely hope that I have managed to shine some light on the given subject and helped you in any way possible.

Most of the stuff about this subject is self-explanatory, the best way you can avoid shadow banning is by following the rules.

Good day and good luck to all of you TikTok users out there.