How to block words on TikTok and filter comments

To block words on TikTok, open Profile, tap the menu, then Settings and privacy, Privacy, Comments and Filter keywords in comments. Turn on Filter specific keywords and add your words: comments that contain them stay hidden on your videos until you approve them. LIVE chats and ads use separate lists of up to 500 keywords.

This guide walks through every native filter, gives you a starter blocklist for a brand account, and shows where spam still gets through (LIVE, ads, disguised spellings). For the wider picture, including how TikTok itself enforces its rules, see our complete guide to TikTok moderation.

How to block words on TikTok, step by step

1. Open the TikTok app and tap Profile at the bottom.

2. Tap the menu button at the top, then Settings and privacy.

3. Tap Privacy, then Comments.

4. Below Comment filters, tap Filter keywords in comments.

5. Turn on Filter specific keywords, tap Add keywords and enter the words or phrases you want to block.

6. Go back to Comments and turn on Filter unwanted comments, which hides recent comments that may be offensive or spam.

7. Open Review filtered comments every few days and tap Approve or Delete on what was caught.

Filtered comments are hidden, not deleted. They wait in Review filtered comments until you decide. The menu names above are the ones used on TikTok's help page about managing comments.

The keyword filter covers comments on your videos only. It does not apply to your LIVE chat or to your ads, which have their own settings, covered below.

TikTok comment filters compared

TikTok offers several filters in the same Comments menu. They stack: you can run the keyword filter, the unwanted comments filter and Creator Care Mode at the same time.

Can you hide comments on TikTok?

Yes, but not the way you do on Instagram. TikTok's help center does not describe a Hide button for a single comment in the app. You hide comments through the filters above, which keep them out of public view until you approve them, or you remove them:

• Delete one comment: press and hold it, then tap Delete.

• Delete in bulk: in the comments, tap the Filters button or press and hold a comment and choose Manage multiple comments, then select up to 100 comments, as described in TikTok's comments help page.

• Block the account: a blocked person can no longer view your videos or interact with you through comments, messages, follows or likes.

• Turn comments off on one video from its privacy settings.

• Use a connected tool: TikTok's API for Business has an endpoint to hide or unhide a comment on your own video, which is how moderation tools hide single comments without deleting them.

For brand moderation, hiding is usually better than deleting. It is reversible when a filter catches a genuine comment, and it removes the comment from public view without starting an argument in the thread.

How to block words during a TikTok LIVE

LIVE has its own comment settings, separate from the keyword filter for videos. Set them before you start: tap the + button, choose LIVE, tap Settings, then Comment settings. Moderators can change them too if you gave them comment permissions.

These details come from TikTok's LIVE comments help page. Keep your mute-rule keywords in a note, because mute rules must be set again for every LIVE, and brief your moderators before you go live: a LIVE chat moves faster than any list you can edit mid-stream.

How to block words on TikTok ads

Comments on ads are managed in TikTok Ads Manager, not in the app. Its Comments Manager lets you view, reply to, like, block, export, hide and filter ad comments, one by one or in bulk. To add blocked words:

1. In TikTok Ads Manager, hover over Tools and click Comments (or Comments Manager).

2. Click Blocked Words in the left-hand menu, then Add.

3. Enter your words separated by commas and click Confirm.

The list holds up to 500 words of up to 30 Latin characters each, according to TikTok's Ads Manager help. Matching is literal, and TikTok's own examples show how narrow it is: in languages that use spaces, the keyword "I love" blocks "I love you" but not "I loved", and "a" does not block "cola" (About Blocked Words). A blocked word will not catch its plural or a misspelling unless you add them too.

You can also turn off comments for a whole ad group. Think twice: ad comments are where buyers ask about price, sizes and delivery, so filtering the noise usually beats silencing everyone.

Is there a list of TikTok banned words?

There is no official one. TikTok publishes Community Guidelines that describe banned content, such as hate speech, harassment or scams, not a list of forbidden words. The "TikTok banned words" lists that circulate online are creators' guesses about which terms limit a video's reach. For your own comment section, the list that matters is the one you build from the comments you actually receive.

A starter blocklist for brand accounts

Add the misspellings people really use as separate entries (crypt0, cryp to, whats app) and prefer full phrases to single words: "check my profile" is safer than "profile".

Limits of TikTok's keyword filters

• Disguised spellings. Spaced letters, digits, emojis between letters and lookalike characters from other alphabets (a Cyrillic "о" in place of a Latin "o") do not match a plain keyword. Only the LIVE list says it blocks similar versions by default; the Ads Manager list is literal.

• Three separate lists. Videos, LIVE and ads each need their own setup, and LIVE mute rules reset after every stream.

• Negativity has no fixed wording. Most harmful comments contain no banned word. "Don't waste your money, this brand is a joke" contains nothing you would ever put on a blocklist, and neither do most pile-ons.

• Approval backlog. Filter all comments hides everything until you approve it, so on a busy account genuine questions wait.

• No team workflow. The app has no shared queue, assignment or history for several moderators.

TikTok is where many brands meet these limits first: among Blabla's paying customers, it is the network with the most hidden comments after Facebook (Blabla usage data, September 2026).

When to automate TikTok comment moderation

If you are comparing options, our overview of social media moderation tools explains what dedicated tools add.

Common mistakes

• Blocking single common words such as "link", "free" or "follow": they hide fans and buying questions.

• Never opening Review filtered comments. Genuine questions sit unanswered for weeks.

• Setting up the video filter only and forgetting LIVE and Ads Manager.

• Leaving Filter all comments on permanently on a growing account.

• Replying to trolls in public. Attention lifts their comment; hide, mute or block quietly.

• Hiding fair criticism. Answer it instead: our guide to handling negative comments has reply examples.

Free tools

• Free comment blocklist generator and tester

Automate it with Blabla

A blocklist fails in two ways: it misses "cr ypto" and "whats app", and it cannot see an insult written in polite words. Blabla keeps your list and adds AI filters that you phrase as instructions, for example "hide scams, insults and comments pretending to be our support team". The AI reads what a comment means, so disguised spellings and negative comments without a listed word are caught, and you decide whether each rule hides or deletes. Rules run on the comments of your TikTok videos around the clock through TikTok's official API, and one set of rules can cover several accounts, next to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. What is left goes to a shared inbox, where you can also automate replies to TikTok comments. If the native filters keep up with your volume, stay native; otherwise see Blabla for TikTok.

Conclusion

Turn on Filter unwanted comments, add a keyword list built from your real comments and their misspellings, and review filtered comments every week. Set blocked keywords before each LIVE and keep a separate Blocked Words list in Ads Manager if you advertise. When disguised spam, negativity or volume outgrow those lists, automate the filtering and keep people for the replies.