TikTok says there's no such thing as shadow banning

Shadow banning is, apparently, not real.

TikTok debunked the idea that shadow banning is being implemented on its platform.

In an interview, a TikTok Philippines executive said their team doesn’t know how people came up with the term “shadow ban,” but he explained that on their end, they have a section in the community guideline called “not recommended.”

This section includes a stream of videos not recommended in the “For You Feed (FYF),” as they contain sensitive content or may not be suitable for broad-based sharing on the public feed, particularly for TikTok users aged below 18.

The FYF is a unique TikTok feature that uses a personalized recommendation system to allow users to discover a breadth of content, creators, and topics. 

In determining what gets recommended, the system considers factors such as likes, shares, comments, searches, diversity of content, and popular videos.

In October last year, Heart Evangelista opened up about “dirty tactics” as her online content has allegedly been on a “shadow ban,” which she described as “black propaganda” that was being used against her.

—CACM, GMA Integrated News