Copyright Strikes on TikTok: How To Avoid Them

The concept of “ownership” has largely disappeared in the age of social media platforms, at least when it comes to music and the written word.

With virtually any song, article, and post now available for copying, downloading, reposting, and sharing, most people don’t care who created the videos, music, or writing they’re reusing. If challenged, they might brandish the term “fair use” as a weapon without understanding what it means. (It’s legally complicated, and it rarely applies to social media posts.)

Here’s the simple truth. When a content creator produces an original video or composes an original post, or a musician records an original song, they own it. Legally, the work is protected by copyright and can’t be used by anyone else without the creator’s permission. No paperwork or registration is required to own the copyright.

Unfortunately for producers, there’s no easy way to enforce copyrights on most of the Internet. It’s somewhat different on TikTok, though. TikTok’s terms and conditions and Community Standards prohibit copyright infringement, meaning you need a creator’s permission to use their work (reposting and sharing on the app don’t count as violations).

And if you’re caught using copyrighted music, videos, or other creations without permission, your TikTok account could be at risk.

Here’s how it works — and how to make sure you’re not infringing on someone else’s copyright.

TikTok Copyright Violations

As you’d probably guess, the app can’t keep track of everything that’s posted by the more than two billion TikTok users. A complaint about unauthorized use of copyrighted material usually has to be submitted by the creator. The primary exception is the use of copyrighted music; the TikTok algorithms have an automated system that continually scans posts for violations.

Once a copyright complaint has been received by the system, it is reviewed by human moderators. If the complaint is valid, the infringing TikTok post is removed, and the offender who infringed is notified and may face penalties. In most cases, the user will receive what’s called a “strike” on their account; three copyright violations trigger a permanent account ban.

Strikes stay on TikTok accounts for 90 days and are then removed, although repeated, willful violations could still result in the removal of the offender’s account regardless of when the strikes are issued. It’s possible to appeal a strike, but justifications like “I didn’t realize,” “freedom of speech,” “fair use,” or “others are also doing it” will almost always be rejected.

That leaves one big question: how do you avoid copyright strikes and TikTok bans?

Stay Safe by Being Careful

The biggest copyright problem that people face on TikTok involves the use of music and other sounds, so we’ll address that first.

Avoiding Copyright Strikes for Sounds

The app has an enormous music library available to individual users (who have so-called “Creator” accounts) that lets them include music in their TikTok videos. A second commercial music library with more than a million songs is available to users with Business accounts. Those sounds are licensed for use and won’t cause any copyright violations.

However, almost all other songs can trigger issues since they’re not licensed for TikTok purposes.

What you have to do is contact the copyright owner, who could be the song’s writer or a third-party publishing company, and get their permission to use their music for a fee or for free (it’s best to get the permission in writing). Then you can prove that you didn’t violate copyright rules if you’re flagged by the system. 

The only exceptions that won’t get you into trouble are:

• Songs that are in the public domain, most of them published during the 1920s or earlier
• Songs that you’ve written yourself

If you’re not sure whether the sound you want to use is licensed or otherwise OK to use in a video, TikTok has a copyright check tool right in the app. You can access it from the TikTok Studio link in your settings; just click on the “Menu” icon (three horizontal lines) on your TikTok profile page to find it.

Avoiding Copyright Strikes for Videos or Other Content

This one is pretty simple: if someone else created video or written content, you can’t use it without their permission.

That rule-of-thumb doesn’t govern TikTok features like Stitches and Duets, or using the app’s functions to repost or share posts. Most creators have already given permission for those uses in their account settings; if they haven’t, the platform won’t let you share or use them.

Otherwise, though, the smart move is to simply stick to content that you’ve produced on your own. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re “making money” from the use of other people’s copyrighted material, and simply “giving credit” to the original creator doesn’t eliminate liability.

We’ll close this discussion with the summary that TikTok uses for this topic: “A lack of knowledge isn’t a valid defense against copyright infringement.”

In short, if you don’t know whether you’ll get a strike for using a song or video — DON’T USE IT.