If you notice that your TikTok videos have stopped gaining views, it’s probably a shadow ban. Don’t panic – it’s not forever.

In this article, we’ll tell you why your content can be banned, how to recognize a shadow ban and how to get out of it.

What is a shadow ban in Tick-Tock

Shadow ban in Tick-Tock is when videos stop getting into recommendations. A clear indicator of such a ban is a noticeable drop in views. For example, your videos were consistently getting 10-20 thousand views, you upload a new one, and there….200 views and that’s it. Maybe you just made a bad video, but it’s more likely that the video was shadow-banned.

Ban is called shadow ban because TikTok doesn’t send any notifications that you violated something – everything seems to be the same, but the views of new and old videos fall. At the same time, TikTok doesn’t block the account – the ability to upload new videos is preserved, videos are opened.

The pain of the shadow ban is that the video is no longer displayed in recommendations, which is usually where most of the traffic comes from. The banned video can only be viewed by your subscribers and users of other social networks if someone reposts your content.

Reasons for a shadow ban

Let’s break down a few reasons:

• Banned content – weapons, drugs, 18+ material, alcohol, cigarettes, violent propaganda, and generally anything that any social network does not encourage. We mean the “light” version of the banned content. For a serious violation, you can get a real ban. For example, you may be put “in the shadows” for a toy knife in a frame, or ketchup as an illustration of a bloody scene.
• Deleting clips and pouring in new ones. You revisit old clips and you don’t like them, you want to redo them. As a result, you delete the old clip and make a new one. Or you notice a mistake in the clip and also want to remake it. After such manipulations (especially if you do it too often) you can find a sharp drop in views.
• Spam. This concept includes publishing a large number of videos in a short period of time – 10-15 per day, an excessive number of likes and comments, publishing identical videos.
• Mat. Tik-Tok restricts content with foul language. And under the ban may fall in the song (a rare case, but it happens), for example, in a hip-hop track. So it’s better to avoid such tracks.
• Children on the air. Tik-Tok rules prohibit the filming of children under 13 years old without an adult. Although periodically such videos get into the recommended – the algorithms of the social network are imperfect. But it is better to avoid content with children.
• Spamming with hashtags. Like Instagram, Tik-Tok does not welcome a swath of hashtags. An adequate number is 2-4.
• Alien content. This is entirely other people’s videos or excerpts from movies, for example. If you want to insert a snippet of other people’s content into your video, remember that it should be no more than 30% of all your videos.

How to understand that you’re in the shadow ban

The first thing that catches your eye with a shadow ban is a sharp drop in views. Old videos stop getting additional views, i.e., they remain approximately at the same numbers as before, give or take. The new ones even show ridiculous numbers – from a few dozen to a few hundred views.

Important: A small number of views is not a 100% indicator of a shadow ban.

Statistics will help you determine whether you have been put into a shadow ban. The most obvious indicator is when the main source of traffic is your subscribers.

• Go to the statistics – 3 dots in the upper right corner. Next is the “Analytics” section.
• Then “Content” and click on a particular video.
• In the information about that video, go down to the “Traffic Source Types” subsection.

Alternatively, you can open the video itself, click the 3 dots in the bottom right corner (or the “Share” arrow), then “Analytics” – you get the same data. We look at the numbers and analyze.

Example 1: when the main percentage of views is the item “Subscriptions”. In the screenshot below, subscriptions are 91%, another 9% are profile conversions (maybe the profile is PRing somewhere). The item “Recommended” has 0%, i.e. the video does not get into recommendations at all. Conclusion – the video is in a shadow ban.

Example 2: when the main percentage of views is item “Recommended”. In the screenshot below 92% of views came from the section with recommended videos, 4% – transitions from the profile, and 2% – views from subscribers. Conclusion – the video is NOT in the shadow ban, everything is fine.

Although in this particular example, it’s not so good – 2% of views from subscribers indicates that they are no longer interested in your content. If it keeps going that way, they might unsubscribe. Another reason for such a low percentage of views might be if your subscribers are tricked. Although there may be a third reason, and it’s quite trivial – there is a lot of content in TikTok, some people subscribe under the impression of watching a video, then leave the application and forget who they liked and subscribed to.

Important: you must have a PRO-account to watch the statistics, without it you can only guess whether you got into the shadow ban or not. And the account must be connected in advance to have time to generate statistics for old clips. Connect PRO after the ban, to see the reason, useless – it will not be statistics on the already uploaded videos.

We also advise to read the material on how to analyze the statistics.

How to get out of the shadow ban in TikTok

Algorithm of actions by steps. Shadow ban lasts for 5-7 days, in some cases 2 weeks.

• We deal with the reason for the ban. This is necessary in order not to get a ban on new videos.
• Having understood the reason, once again re-read the rules Tik Tok – start shooting new videos, that is, prepare content for the future. But with past mistakes taken into account.
• We wait for the end of the shadow ban (it’s better to wait at least a week) and gradually post new videos. After a while, the videos again begin to get into recommendations.

Wait – but where is the answer, “how to get out of the ban”? Unfortunately, in this case, we just have to wait until it is removed from you. But not to sit idle – prepare new content.

Some bloggers advise not to wait until the end of the ban, and after dealing with the cause, slowly post new videos. This is explained by the fact that after the first violations Tik-Tok have increased attention to the offending account, and you need to show that you’re a real person, trying to work on the content and regularly post videos. This is a moot point, as the causes and severity of the violations are all individual. We still advise to wait at least a few days.

P.S. Writing to technical support with regard to the shadow ban is useless – they either do not respond at all, or send the standard “with your video is all right, no ban.

What you definitely can’t do.

Delete the problematic video and upload it again. You’ll get banned again, and that’s fraught with more serious problems for your account. As we wrote above, Tic-Toc doesn’t like deleting videos at all.

If you want to hide your video from other people, it’s better to move it to the archive.

• To move the video to the archive, open the video, click on the 3 dots.