Seeing a flag on a clip is unsettling, so here is what it actually means, what it does not mean, and what happens next.
A flag is a pause, not a decision: it freezes the clip's payout while a person on our team looks at it, and you can appeal it once. It is opened automatically when the clip's bot score crosses the campaign's threshold or the post disappears from the platform, or by the campaign's team during review, and it ends in one of three ways, each described below. The one thing a flag never does on its own is reject the clip; that call is always made by a person.
What the bot score is
Every submission gets a bot score from 0 to 100, produced from how the views and engagement on the post behave, with the help of a third-party fraud detection provider. A higher score means the engagement looks less real. The campaign's team sees it on each clip as Bot likelihood and uses it as one input to their review; you do not see the number itself. What you see, if the score meets the campaign's threshold, is the flag it opens. A threshold is set by us and can be set per campaign by the brand.
This is the brand's view of a clip. Higher means the engagement looks less real, and you never see this number on your own clip.
What opens a flag
Who or what | When , and what you see |
Our monitoring | The bot score meets or passes the campaign's threshold.
Nothing on the clip itself, because a flag is not shown to you. Its payout stops moving past its expected date, and if you open a ticket with the clip link we will do our best to help, though we cannot promise an outcome yet. |
Our monitoring | The post can no longer be found on the platform.
The same, and if the post comes back the flag lifts on its own. |
The campaign's team | A reviewer flags the clip during review, for serious abuse or engagement that looks bought.
The same. |
What a flag does to your payout
While the flag is open the clip cannot be paid, and whatever had already been set aside for it stays frozen rather than taken; on your Earnings page the row simply stops moving past its expected date. Only our team can resolve a flag, and the resolution is one of three.
The three outcomes
Outcome | What it means , and your money |
Dismissed | The flag was wrong.
The freeze lifts and the payout carries on from where it stopped. |
Upheld, payout returned | The flag was right.
The money set aside for the clip goes back to the campaign. Anything already paid to you in earlier cycles stays yours. |
Upheld, no action | The flag was right and the clip stays rejected.
The money set aside goes back to the campaign. |
How to appeal
You may appeal each flagged clip once. Open Help & Support (the chat bubble in the corner of this page and of the app), name the clip, say that you are appealing the flag, and explain in writing why the engagement is real; you may be asked for evidence, and analytics screenshots, your for-you placement or a paid boost the brand arranged are the kind that settles it. The appeal opens a conversation with our team, and the Terms commit us to a response within 10 business days. If it succeeds the flag is dismissed and a paused payout resumes; if it does not, the flag is upheld and the unsettled payout may be returned to the campaign. An appeal decides the flag only. If you think a rejection itself was wrong, that is a different route, described in Approval and review.
What can take a payout back
A payout that has not yet paid is returned to the campaign in four cases: a flag on the clip is upheld; the clip is rejected after it was approved; on per post, the clip never reaches the minimum views while we are still watching the post; or your account is banned, which returns every clip that was still pending or approved but not yet paid. You are notified when it happens. Once a payout has settled to your balance it is not reversed through any of those; the only exception in the Terms is that we may withhold or offset against your balance a loss from confirmed fraud, botting or cheating on your account. Money you have already withdrawn is never touched.
What you see, and what the brand sees
A returned payout drops off your Earnings page, and the clip's own Payout details panel records it as Payout clawed back, marked Returned, with a line saying why, most often that the post is no longer live; if the post is back up, ask us to recheck it. On the brand's side the returned amount, fee included, goes back into the campaign's available budget. Nobody presses a button for any of this; it follows from the flag, the rejection, the minimum or the ban.
Does one flag count against you?
One flag is a signal on one clip, and a dismissed flag leaves nothing behind. Buying or generating views, likes, followers or engagement, or coordinating to do so, is a different matter: under the Terms it means a permanent ban, the social accounts connected to the banned account can be blocked from the platform with it, and accounts that appear to be run by the same person can be treated together. A ban can be appealed once through Help & Support, and a person reviews it; what a ban does to your balance is in Your account was suspended or you were removed from a campaign.
If something looks wrong
If a clip was flagged and the views are real, appeal with your evidence as above; the score is a signal, not a verdict. If it was flagged right after you submitted, check first that the post is still public, because a post that is private or deleted flags on its own and clears on its own when it is back, and then appeal with your analytics if the views are real.
A flag is a question about one clip, not a verdict on you: explain the engagement, attach what you have, and a person will look.
Related
Approval and review
Payouts
Why your view count does not match ours