TikTok’s New Community Guidelines:
What Creators Need to Know—and Why Building Your Own Brand Matters
TikTok’s September 2025 Guidelines: Key Changes
On September 13, 2025, TikTok will roll out its latest update to the Community Guidelines, focusing on clearer language, increased transparency, and new policies that reflect evolving user and regulatory expectations. While the bulk of the update is stylistic—aimed at making the rules easier to understand—several notable shifts affect LIVE creators, AI content, and how TikTok prioritizes its own marketplace.
- LIVE Creators: Creators are now explicitly responsible for everything that happens during their live sessions, including actions taken via third-party tools (like translation or comment readers). TikTok emphasizes monitoring these tools to ensure compliance. A new guideline requires commercial content in live sessions to be disclosed, and warns that promoting off-platform purchases will face reduced visibility in markets where TikTok Shop operates.
- Marketplace & Search: TikTok is personalizing user experiences further than before. Both search results and recommendations are now explicitly described as personalized, using your history and viewing behavior to tailor what you see. Comment sections are also personalized, sorted by your own engagement signals like likes, replies, or reports.
- AI Content: While TikTok previously banned deepfake videos showing fake crises or fake endorsements, the new language simplifies this by prohibiting any content that is misleading about matters of public importance or harmful to individuals. Notably, wording about AI-generated endorsements was dropped, potentially signaling an opening for future creator collaborations with AI tools.
- Eligibility for For You Feed: Criteria for appearing in TikTok’s For You Feed (FYF) is now distributed throughout the guidelines, rather than in a central list, making it less immediately clear and requiring creators to reference multiple sections.
- Content Moderation: The rationale for moderation now focuses on keeping TikTok “safe, fun, and creative” for everyone, with “trustworthy” removed from the description.
Policy Shifts Across Other Social Platforms
Other major platforms are also adjusting their guidelines in response to global regulations and changing audiences in 2025:
- Meta (Facebook/Instagram): Meta removed fact-checking for political content on its platforms, which may increase reliance on user moderation and elevate risks around misinformation and brand alignment.
- Threads: Meta’s Threads app introduced more controls for "Liked" and "Saved" content, aiming to improve user experience and privacy.
- Terms of Service Transparency: In New York, new laws require social platforms to clearly publish their terms of service, explain reporting processes, and clarify moderation actions. This push for open policies influences updates far beyond New York, as platforms seek to stay compliant and competitive.
- TikTok Creator Features: TikTok added a “Creator Care Mode” for comments moderation, “Creator Chat Rooms” for community building, and “Scaled Rewards” to monetize TikTok LIVE. In Europe, TikTok Pro gives creators enhanced controls, and in the U.S., new moderation tools like “Footnotes” crowdsource factual content checks
Long-Term Impact on Creators
As platforms evolve:
- Greater Accountability: Creators using LIVE sessions must monitor all aspects (including third-party tools) more closely, increasing the administrative overhead but also providing more transparency for audiences.
- Reduced Off-Platform Promotion: Monetization strategies requiring external purchases may face obstacles in regions where platforms have their own shops, nudging creators to use in-app features.
- Personalization & Discovery: With more personalization in feeds, search, and comments, creators may struggle with content visibility unless they deeply understand TikTok’s algorithms and audience segments.
- Increased Moderation: Automated moderation (now catching over 85% of problematic content pre-emptively) means creators must stay vigilant to avoid accidental rule breaches—and may need to appeal content removals more frequently.
Platforms are optimizing for their own needs, pushing creators to adapt or risk reduced reach, restricted monetization, and opaque enforcement.
Why Building Your Own Brand Matters: The Wallafan Solution
Walled gardens and shifting guidelines put your reach—and revenue—at risk. That’s why owning your brand and content is more critical than ever.
Wallafan, a branded creator website platform, gives you total control and independence. Unlike most creator tools, Wallafan lets you:
- Apply full brand identity: Logo, colors, layouts, cover images—your site is instantly professional and unique.
- Monetize directly: Embed premium content, sponsorships, and bookings within your own site without platform interference.
- Own your audience: Collect emails and run your site on your own domain (CNAME plus custom footer options coming soon).
- Unified business dashboard: Manage monetization, fans, and analytics securely without stitching together multiple apps.
Wallafan is more than a landing page: it’s your full branded mini-site, perfect for creators who want ownership and resilience against the shifting rules and reach of social platforms.
Final Thoughts
With social media guidelines shifting each year, reducing visibility for off-platform sales, tightening control of live content, and employing AI-driven moderation, long-term success hinges on building an audience that you control. Treat TikTok and similar platforms as discovery engines, but put your primary investment into your own branded ecosystem using platforms like Wallafan. That way, you’ll always be ready to pivot, monetize, and maintain your creative independence, regardless of what tomorrow’s guidelines bring
Sources Cited
https://www.tiktok.com/community-guidelines/en/overview?cgversion=2025H2update
https://blog.gainapp.com/social-media-updates/
https://socialbee.com/blog/social-media-news/
https://maybusch.com/why-you-need-strong-personal-brand-how-to-build-one/
About the Author
Nikki Lopez is a seasoned professional with over a decade of experience in the startup world, specializing in leveraging creative content and community building to empower content creators. Known for a strategic approach and a deep understanding of audience needs, Nikki has a proven track record of leading the development of engaging content strategies and guiding the growth of thriving communities. Her leadership focuses on fostering meaningful interactions and impactful journeys for both creators and their audiences.
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