What is a shadowban? a shadowban means your account is under a “shadow” punishment, and you are getting a heavy reduction of your views on your recent videos and which no one would acknowledge that you have received any kind of restriction. new videos does not perform like it did before.
there are also other types of ban, like a community violation, or hard ban. these are obvious, as you would have received an official message or email from the platform.
How do accounts get shadow banned? there are certain behaviours and topics that are considered “undesirable”. These are not written in the community guidelines or rules, because they are usually sensitive and companies prefer to ignore and not to comment. Those who don’t, risk lawsuits. My previous working experience with Google, Facebook and Tiktok shows that questions about these issues usually goes ignored. You can try your luck and let me know if it works.
Undesirable behavior examples –
following other accounts in return for a follow
defaming or leaving negative comments on authority accounts (those who are famous or government officials)
Commenting on socially sensitive topics like racism, sexism etc.
Undesirable topics –
Forex trading, options
crytocurrency
Dangerous dares
LGBT/Gay
for every account, its normal to have its ups and downs. it can take 2-3 months for the traffic to come in because tiktok focuses on different niche at different time. chances are that you got featured (they don’t tell u directly) and u got extra traffic for a few weeks, and then suddenly there is a drop. the drop in this case is simply due to tiktok refocusing their viewership somewhere else. and in due time, the viewership will come back to you and cycle again.
if you have posted a video with less than 50 views, you might have been hit with a restriction. most videos will get at least 50 views, before the algorithm decides to give it more views. link here to how the algorithm works >>> xxx . if your video does not have any views at all, then there is a chance that it was randomly flagged for manual review. in such cases, half the time they will still get the traffic, but later. the other half there seems to be this mistake where no one reviews and the video is in limbo forever. for these cases, i suggest that you delete that video, and repost it. this is generally accepted, as long as your video is in accordance to their regulations. if your video violates any community guidelines, it may be ignored or taken down.
also, your video views may be low, simply because the content you are creating is not interesting to the viewers, and also not important enough for the Tiktok admin at the back end to highlight and broadcast. you will want to figure out how you can create interesting content that others will like and share.
Tiktok actively manages their influencer accounts. If you have been selected to be part of their official creators group, you are expected to participate actively in their activities, such as movie screenings, hashtag challenges, workshops etc. They are biased towards these active accounts.
how to avoid being “shadow banned?” >> we will discuss this in a separate post. the guidelines will not only avoid shadow ban, but also get the attention and favor of Tiktok, other social media platforms, brand sponsors and private company interest.