The Two Ways to Ban A TikTok User

When people ask, “How do you ban a TikTok user?” they could be asking two very different things.

• They might want to know how to stop someone from seeing their TikTok content and profile, commenting on their TikTok posts, harassing them in DMs, or bothering them in any way.
• They might be asking how to get the social media platform to remove someone who’s uploaded offensive TikTok videos, spammed or scammed users, or committed other violations of TikTok’s terms and conditions and Community Standards.

Let’s explain how each of those processes works.

How To Get TikTok to Ban a Problematic User

To put it bluntly, all you can do is ask. It’s solely up to TikTok to kick a user off the app, no matter how serious a violation they may have committed.

The app has a lengthy set of rules governing acceptable behavior, TikTok content, and use of TikTok accounts. In brief:

• Posts cannot contain graphic violence, explicit sexual material, or hate speech, and cannot encourage or incite illegal activity, non-consensual sex, violence, or self-harm. They also cannot infringe on the copyright rights of users or other entities.
• Users cannot harass, bully, or spam others.
• Accounts cannot be used to scam or cheat users, send spam, or engage in illegal actions.

Violations can lead to account penalties, temporary suspensions, or outright bans. There’s an intricate system of “strikes” that TikTok can assess against a user for each violation, with three strikes within 90 days leading to account deletion. Egregious behavior can also justify an outright ban regardless of how many strikes have been assessed.

That sounds impressive, but here’s the problem. It’s virtually impossible to effectively police a platform with more than two billion users — who post approximately 23 million new videos every day — without a lot of help.

That’s where “TikTok reports” come in. The app relies heavily on users to report violations of its Community Standards; the reports can be submitted either on the culprit’s TikTok profile page (by tapping the sweeping right arrow at the top right of the screen and clicking “Report”) or on the offending post (where the same arrow is toward the bottom right of the screen).

Choose the reason you’re reporting the account, follow the instructions, and TikTok moderators will review the report to determine if penalties or a ban are warranted.

In short, you can’t ban the user yourself; you can only submit evidence of a violation and hope that the app will do the rest. If your complaint is legitimate, though, there’s a good chance that others are doing the same thing. Reporting unacceptable behavior is the fastest way to get someone banned from TikTok.

There’s a more immediate step you can take to protect yourself, though.

How To Block a Problematic User

Getting someone kicked off TikTok might make you feel good. However, if your more immediate goal is to stop them from bothering you and avoid seeing their content, blocking their account will get them out of your hair and off of your feeds. Once you’ve reported them to the platform, take these steps to block them.

1. Visit their profile page and tap the sweeping right arrow at the top right corner of the screen.
2. Choose “Block” from the bottom row of icons (it’s right next to the “Report” button, so you can submit a report and then block them at the same time).

Problem solved.

Reporting objectionable content or behavior is important for the proper functioning of the platform, but blocking ensures that the user won’t be able to see or comment on your posts, DM you, or interact with you in any other way. They may not yet be banned from TikTok — but they’re immediately banned from interfering with your enjoyment of the app. And isn’t that just as good?