Addison Rae’s rise to fame through TikTok is well-known. The 21-year-old creator has 85 million followers on the app, earning her the spot of third most-followed (after @charlidamelio and @khaby.lame). She’s signed a multi-film deal with Netflix, launched a music career, and befriended the original influencer clan, the Kardashian family.
But yesterday, the TikTok star took to another social media platform, announcing that she was permanently banned from her app of choice.
On Twitter, Rae posted a screenshot of her phone, with a pop-up message from TikTok: “Your account was permanently banned due to multiple violations of our Community Guidelines”. Rae captioned her tweet cryptically, “Well time to get a job.”
Rae’s jokes aside, the ban seemed to be real — at least momentarily. Fans and followers tweeted back in shock (“damn they actually banned you..”), with screenshots of Rae’s account dismantled: 0 following, 0 followers, 0 likes. The numbers are a far cry from Rae’s actual TikTok stats, some of which have reached billions.
Strangely enough, though, the He’s All That star was reinstated to TikTok. All her content, and her millions of followers, are clearly visible. There’s been no further explanation from Rae or from the app so far. Mashable has reached out to TikTok for comment.
Violating TikTok’s Community Guidelines comes in a number of forms, including violent extremism, hateful behavior, illegal activities, violent content, harassment, adult nudity. Content that violates these guidelines or promotes any of the above will be removed, according to TikTok. But to get banned, an account would have to partake in “severe or repeated violations.”
It’s hard to imagine where Rae’s videos fit into these violations, especially because most of her feed consists of her dances, sponsored content, or just general life videos.
TikTok says that between April and June 2021, they removed over 81 million videos that violated their guidelines.
The platform is known for using automation to detect and dismiss of illegal or harmful content. This is a feature of TikTok that has previously been criticized, especially by Black creators who say that the app is suppressing or discriminating against their content.
When it comes to moderation, TikTok alleges that the false-positive rate (or videos that have been wrongfully removed) is 5 percent. Of the 81 million videos reportedly removed between April and June, 4.6 million have been reinstated.
Rae is now counted as one of the reinstated, which is news we’re sure she would welcome. It certainly saves her from having to look for another job — though, considering her net worth, she wouldn’t need to rush.
