We recognize that some content that would otherwise violate our rules may be in the public interest to view. Public interest refers to topics that inform, inspire, or educate the community and enhance deliberation about matters of broad collective significance. We may allow content to remain on TikTok under one of these public interest exceptions:

• Documentary
• Educational
• Medical and Scientific
• Counterspeech
• Satirical
• Artistic

Our approach to content moderation uses the same criteria, no matter who creates it. The most important factor we consider in looking at public interest exceptions is context, such as whether the content is raising awareness or criticizing harmful behaviors. To help us in our review, we encourage you to clearly show context using features such as captions, voice over, or stickers.

We may add extra safety measures to some content allowed under a public interest exception, such as making it ineligible for the FYF or adding a label, "opt-in" screen, or warning information. We do not provide exceptions for public interest content if it may cause extreme harm, such as showing a suicide or sexual abuse of a young person.

We aim to remove content or accounts that violate our rules before they are viewed or shared. Content first goes through an automated review process. If content is identified as a potential violation, it will be automatically removed, or flagged for additional review by our moderators. Additional review will occur if content gains popularity or has been reported. To support moderation accuracy, we apply additional quality assurance processes to some accounts that have already gone through additional validation processes, such as verified accounts.

Although we work hard to enforce our guidelines, we cannot guarantee that all content shared complies with our guidelines or Terms of Service. Suspected violations can be reported in-app and on our website. If you discover content or accounts that may violate our rules, please let us know so we can review it and take any appropriate action.

Learn more about our enforcement efforts through our Transparency Center.

In keeping with our commitment to ensuring procedural fairness, we seek to provide notifications if you have violated our rules. If you have posted content that we do not allow, we will notify you and share the reason for the removal. If your account has been banned because of a violation, you will receive a banner notification when you next open the app, informing you of this account change. If you have posted content that is ineligible for the For You feed (FYF), or is otherwise restricted, this information will appear in the TikTok analytics tool.

If your account was banned, or your content was violated, made ineligible for the FYF, or otherwise restricted, and you believe it was an error, then you can appeal the decision. You can view the status of your appeal in the in-app Safety Center, as well as the status of any reports you have filed about other content or accounts.