You’ve Appealed A TikTok Penalty. How Long For A Review?

Most TikTok users never think about being penalized by the social media platform. They scroll their feeds, create and post content, shop, and watch Live streams without ever worrying about whether they’re violating any of TikTok’s terms and conditions or Community Guidelines.

That’s why it can be so disturbing to receive an official notification in your Inbox, telling you that you’ve been hit with a penalty for breaking the rules. In most cases, the violation was inadvertent; it may even stem from a report by another user who didn’t understand the context of your TikTok video or is deliberately trying to hurt your TikTok account for some reason.

The notification may have a header like “Community Guidelines Violation” or “Video Removed,” and it will contain a general explanation of why you were penalized and/or why your video was taken down. There will also be a link you can tap to appeal the decision.

Many who receive the bad news aren’t sure what to do next.

It’s often safe to ignore the notification and be more careful about your content creation and activity on the app. Most penalties are considered just “one strike,” you won’t be suspended or banned until you get three strikes, and the strikes disappear after 90 days. If the violation was simply a mistake, you’re unlikely to run into more problems.

Others, however, can’t hit the “appeal” link fast enough, whether they honestly believe the platform’s decision was a mistake or they see the penalty as unfair. After that, all they can do is sit and wait. All appeals go into a queue and won’t be addressed for a while.

How Long Does It Take for TikTok to Review an Appeal?

Don’t sit by your phone with your app open once you’ve submitted an appeal; TikTok’s responses take a lot longer than that. Don’t make plans around an expected response date, either. The amount of time it will take for TikTok to get back to you can vary significantly.

Multiple factors are in play when an appeal is received. They include:

• The length of the queue: The number of appeals submitted to TikTok ebbs and flows. If yours arrives when there are lots of other requests to consider, that can significantly extend your waiting time.
• The type of penalty: Appeals over a “simple” content removal decision are generally handled more quickly than those for issues like an account suspension or ban.
• The details of the violation: A complex case like alleged content theft can require much more time than usual to investigate, consider, and resolve.

However, here are general benchmarks that may help you decide whether to wait to hear back from TikTok or take that vacation to Bora Bora you’ve been thinking about.

Many content violation appeals are resolved within 24-72 hours, and most are handled within a few days of that time frame. Complicated appeals, and appeals involving more serious violations, often take as long as 7-10 days and may require two weeks or longer. Some users even report waiting a month or more before hearing back from TikTok.

While you’re waiting, though, don’t panic and keep appealing. Duplicate appeals will be disregarded, and as we’ve mentioned, a strike for a minor content violation will disappear after three months. As long as you stay on the right side of the rules, you’ll have forgotten all about the penalty a short time after that.