What a shock! Being censored or shadowbanned on a platform you’ve dedicated a substantial amount of time and effort to… Right!? Well, let’s dive into the topic of TikTok censorship and shadowbanning. I have first-hand experience in this area…
Tiktok was a proverbial gold-mine for content creators in the latter part of 2019 and early 2020, and it still is for some creators. Average-Joe TikTokers skyrocketed to super-stardom overnight due to the explosive virality of this emerging platform. You might post a video, and overnight it could amass 10 million views with followers piling in to watch your next act. But as some people exploded upwards, others fell to Earth—and apparently for no reason. Little did they know: they had been shadowbanned and censored. I’m a victim of this Tiktok shadowban slaughterhouse.
As you can imagine, TikTok’s shadowbans and/or censorship results in a sudden drop in views, likes, followers, or site traffic. It’s noticeable—one day you’re enjoying thousands of views; the next, hardly a fraction of those, maybe several hundred. What the heck!? You didn’t do anything wrong. You followed all the TikTok rules! Worst of all, there is no definite proof TikTok shadowbans even exist, but why would they put out detail on how their algorithm operates? They don’t want you knowing you’ve been shadowbanned or censored on their platform; apparently, they want you grinding away on their platform even if they are suppressing your content!
If you search Google on “Tiktok shadowban,” you get recommendations to switch to a “Pro Account” to undo your shadowban. But if you already have a “Pro Account” you can access additional analytics like: video views, followers, profile views, etc. These metrics can reveal that your profile is declining due to a shadowban. I noticed that other content creators were hit with shadowbans and discussing how their video views went from the 100s of thousands down to a few thousand. WHY? Well, this might be hard to choke down, but apparently you overstepped your boundary and created content—or you engaged with content—Tiktok doesn’t like. It seems that no other person wants to discuss the reality of this subject, so let me be the torchbearer.
And here’s the shocker: It isn’t just WHAT you post; TikTok apparently judges WHAT YOU ENGAGE WITH. If you doubt this, consider your “For You” feed – you join TikTok and your For You page is completely random, but after watching and engaging with videos, the For You page transforms into a mesh of videos curated to your likes. Whether it’s dog training or videogame clips, TikTok (the proverbial Big Brother) knows what you like to watch.
It was also revealed in 2020 that TikTok has a backdoor to your information – it has access to everything on your phone, from your messages to your stored passwords. The information was public, but no one seemed to care. “So what?” But if you LIKED a post on a platform TikTok doesn’t agree with, BOOM shadowban!? Perhaps your texting with your dad didn’t fit their agenda!? Boom, shadowban!? If TikTok doesn’t agree with a message, apparently they prefer not to take a risk with you and your content and it’s simply easier to stop whatever you might create before the ball gets rolling. BOOM! Shadowban!?
This year, we saw an update to Instagram’s Terms of Service. They went from creepy to full-on perversion of your privacy. Instagram records you when you are using their app, supposedly to track your eye movement so they can better tailor their advertisements. Have you ever wondered about this: you talk about something near your phone, and then BOOM!? You open Instagram to find an ad on that topic in your feed? Why do we laugh about this and continue on as if it’s normal? Are we the proverbial frogs in boiling water?
I bring up the perversion of Instagram to get the gears in your mind cranking – shadowban and censorship are more than just an algorithm change. What are you doing that TikTok doesn’t like? I’m not sure, but it might be best to try to pin it down and obey the desires of the TikTok overlords, lol. I’ve reached out to TikTok more than 10 times asking to work together and to discuss further the reason or reasons for my supposed shadowban, but of course, no response. I’m kept in the shadowban dungeon wondering, what did I do?
For all intents and purposes, all heil TikTok!
Disclaimer: **This blog post is my own opinion**