Occasionally, I’ll post a video on TikTok that can’t seem to hit more than 50 or 100 views. When that happens, I start to panic. I worry that my content is boring or the algorithm thinks I’m spamming videos. However, a fellow content creator suggested I might be shadowbanned on TikTok.
We’ve all heard that term before, but I wondered how or why it might happen to me. After deep diving into TikTok shadowbanning, here’s what I learned. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
What Does It Mean to Be Shadowbanned on TikTok
The term shadowban is scary enough to hear that it might make you think you’re getting kicked off TikTok, but that’s not always the case.
When you’re shadowbanned on TikTok, your account has just become blocked, or partially blocked, on the app.
That means the engagement on your videos will take a big hit and your videos won’t pop up on the For You Page, which is how a lot of people consume content on the platform.
Instead of kicking you off the platform, being shadowbanned on TikTok is equivalent to the platform just pressing the pause button on your account.
How to Know if You’re Shadowbanned on TikTok
If you’re checking up on your content and notice something doesn’t seem right with your engagement, it might mean you’re currently shadowbanned on TikTok.
Here are a few ways you can tell if you’ve been shadowbanned on TikTok.
You might see that you’re only getting less than 500 views on a video hours after you posted it, especially when most of your other videos hit over 1,000 views.
You also might see a drop in reach after posting a video or that views on a video suddenly drop to zero.
Another way to check if you’re shadowbanned on TikTok is to click on a video and look at the analytics. Check the “traffic sources” and if the traffic is coming from your personal page more than the For You Page, that might be an indication you’re currently shadowbanned on TikTok.
Why am I Shadowbanned on TikTok?
Once you’ve realized that you’ve been shadowbanned on TikTok, it might be tough to figure out what you did to land that violation. While TikTok doesn’t explicitly tell you why you’ve been shadowbanned or even that you are, here are some reasons your content was flagged.
First, double-check that your content doesn’t contain nudity, drugs, hate speech, or dangerous acts. While you might not have realized it, check to see if you didn’t post copyrighted material.
Another reason you might have been shadowbanned on TikTok is that you posted too many videos in a short amount of time.
How Long Does a TikTok Shadowban Last?
Being shadowbanned on TikTok might feel like a buzzkill, especially if you’ve been working hard on creating new content. The ban can last anywhere, from 24 hours to a month. Shadowbans are most commonly known to last for around two weeks.
Even though you’ve been shadowbanned on TikTok, which can feel like getting ghosted, it’s OK to continue posting content. But before you do that, check to see why you might have landed that TikTok shadowban and consider deleting that video.
What Can I Do About Being Shadowbanned?
There are no clear answers on what to do if you get shadowbanned. After all, the reason it’s a shadowban is because TikTok isn’t telling you. However, there are a few tricks you can use to help show you’re a real person.
1) Turn On Your Location
The simplest thing you can do to help fight a shadowban is turn on your location services. Often accounts that are shadowbanned get that way because the algorithm sees you as a bot or spam account. Turning on your location services is a human like behavior. It can help show the service that you’re an actual person living an actual life.
2) Talk To Your Followers
Go back through your posts and reply to comments. Engage with your followers, but don’t just spam a million “thanks!” Act like a person and give genuine feedback or responses. Start a conversation. The goal is to show TikTok you’re people.
3) Don’t Just Spam Likes on Comments
You might think you need to go through and like every single interaction you have on TikTok. Hey, maybe over time, that’s a great idea. But in the short term, if you go through and robotically like everything, it will look like a robot liking everything.
4) Don’t Use a VPN to Post on TikTok
VPN’s are an incredible way to protect yourself when you’re on an unsecured Wi-Fi network, but they’re also a way to hide your IP address. This can single to social media platforms that you’re trying to hide something. Also, they protect your data, which is great. However, you have to remember that social media apps are greedy for your data. They may see use of a VPN as trying to keep them from taking in information.
5) Don’t Follow Yourself Or Give Yourself Likes If You Have Multiple Accounts
Maybe you’re a creator across multiple spaces or just trying to maximize your opportunities by having multiple accounts. That is a wonderful idea. Just make sure you don’t use those multiple accounts to juice your engagement numbers. TikTok will notice if someone from the same IP address is always the first to like your posts. Especially if four accounts with the same IP address do it every time.
6) Don’t Post a Million Things At Once
There’s a chance you aren’t shadowbanned. Maybe you’re just flooding TikTok in such a way it stops your content from flourishing. Don’t post multiple videos all at once. If you need to post multiple vidoes a day, do one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Give your own work room to breath.
Spam accounts flood people’s FYP trying to get engagement. Instead, try only to put out high-quality content at a reasonable pace. When you have a massive audience, you can post more. But don’t burn out the algorithm before it has a chance to get to know you.
The Bottom Line About Getting Shadowbanned on TikTok
It might feel consuming once you realize you’ve been shadowbanned on TikTok. But don’t panic. Instead, double-check your content to ensure you didn’t violate any of TikTok’s community guidelines and avoid spammy behavior.
If you’re eager to continue growing your TikTok account, getting shadowbanned is only a temporary hiccup in the process that hopefully doesn’t last very long.
