TikTok fame is something that more and more individuals are striving for today. The platform creates the opportunity for ordinary people to climb to fame without necessarily needing lots of equipment or experience. A lot of what people do on TikTok is pretty similar to what they do in everyday life—dancing to their favorite songs, lip-syncing to movie scenes, cracking jokes, etc. However, on TikTok, such actions come with an audience, a potential to go viral, and a chance to kickstart a wider career.
Three creators who illustrate the potential of TikTok fame are Charli D’Amelio, Bella Poarch, and Addison Rae. These three women, ranging in ages from 17-25, all unexpectedly went viral on TikTok. Poarch shot to fame for posting a clip of herself lip-syncing to “M to the B,” while D’Amelio went viral for posting a duet of herself dancing to “Move with Joy” before heading to class for the day. These creators found viewers positively responded to their dancing, acting, and improvisation skills, and quickly worked on building up their social media presences and personalities.
However, while the possibility of fame and growth is present on TikTok, so is the possibility of banning. TikTok has strict community guidelines that all users must adhere to. Any content that features or promotes bullying, drugs, alcohol, nudity, or any form of sexual content, is in violation of TikTok’s guidelines. Repeated violations could result in one having their account banned. This means users will lose access to their account and also their followers, views, likes, and shares. While these rules keep users safe, there are instances where the exact rules broken (and reasons for the banning) are unknown to the user.
D’Amelio, Poarch, and Rae banned from TikTok?
Recently, users were shocked to find that D’Amelio, Poarch, and Rae—who make up three of the top five most-followed TikTok accounts—were all permanently banned from the platform. The issue, apparently started with Poarch, who revealed her ban on April 12th. Poarch took to Twitter to share a screenshot of TikTok’s notification that her account was permanently banned for multiple violations of their guidelines. She captioned the snapshot with just a single sad emoji face.
Just minutes later, Rae took to Twitter to share the exact same banning notification she received on her account. However, she took the news with a bit of humor, joking that she should’ve deleted her twerking videos.
D’Amelio, who is the #1 most followed user, was also banned. While she did not personally share or confirm the news, it was reported by Dexerto. Users attempting to access her account were met with a message that she had been banned for violating community guidelines.
Why were D’Amelio, Rae, and Poarch banned?
Despite what TikTok’s own messaging said, D’Amelio, Rae, and Poarch were not actually ‘permanently banned.’ As a matter of fact, all three were banned for only a short amount of time before being reinstated. As of April 14th, all three accounts are accessible on TikTok with all their videos and followers. However, this leaves the question of why they were banned in the first place.
Unfortunately, neither TikTok nor any of the three creators have explained the reason for the banning. However, the fact that the bans all occurred almost at the same time to three individuals who were all among the top creators, could be pointing to a glitch or technical issue. There is also the possibility that these users were perceived to be breaking guidelines, resulting in a banning that was overturned after further review. Another possibility is that the users were victims of unnecessary reporting. Viewers sometimes abuse the reporting tool to mass report content that isn’t harmful, forcing TikTok to review such content and take action.
Ultimately, it isn’t likely we’ll ever know for sure why the three creators were banned. What is fortunate is that their accounts were reinstated, especially considering that other users have not been so lucky. Like the creator of the viral “I’m just a baby” sound on TikTok—who was permanently banned for an unknown reason and has not had her account reinstated. Since this mass banning seemed to specifically target top creators, though, it most likely points to some kind of internal error.
Still, the incident certainly makes users uneasy about the potential of banning. What users can do is ensure that their content fully complies with guidelines and to appeal to TikTok if their channel seems to have been banned in error.
(featured image: TikTok)
