If you create content for Amazon or TikTok in 2025, you’re not just making videos and carousels anymore; you’re running a tiny regulated media business, whether you like it or not.
Over the past few months, creators have been reporting something that used to feel rare:
Well-performing accounts are being shut down, videos are quietly de-monetized, storefronts are suddenly losing eligibility, and content is vanishing from the For You page with almost no explanation.
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As Altovise Pelzer put it during a recent community conversation:
“We’re seeing accounts being shut down left and right, and not just Amazon accounts…we’re kind of starting to see some things filter through some of the other social media platforms, so we’re going to hit on some of those.”
That’s the emotional reality underneath the policy language.
TikTok rolled out new community guideline language and stricter commercial content disclosure enforcement that directly affects branded content, affiliate posts, and anything “shop-adjacent.”
Both platforms are now leaning heavily on automation and AI to police content at scale, and that’s where even “good” creators can get caught.
This article breaks down what actually changed in the 2025 TOS updates for Amazon and TikTok, how those changes translate into real risk for influencers, and what you can do to protect your income without killing your creativity.
1. Why Suspensions Are Surging in 2025
Before we zoom into each platform, it helps to understand the underlying forces:
Huge regulatory pressure.
TikTok’s guideline updates explicitly call out safety, AI misuse, misinformation, and regulated goods in part to align with laws like the EU’s Digital Services Act and other safety regulations.
Amazon faces its own regulatory and legal scrutiny, especially around deceptive endorsements, fake reviews, and consumer protection, so it’s tightening its affiliate and influencer frameworks.
Massive reliance on automated enforcement.
TikTok now says over 85% of content removed for guideline violations is identified automatically, and 99% of that is taken down before anyone reports it.
Amazon’s updated Operating Agreement explicitly reserves the right to monitor, crawl, and investigate your site, and to permanently withhold commissions if they consider you in breach.
Quiet, incremental policy tweaks.
Amazon has updated terms and program policies, including trademark rules and commission eligibility, multiple times between late 2024 and 2025, often via help pages and comparison docs, not loud announcements.
TikTok introduced stricter commercial content disclosure rules in 2025 with enforcement windows of 2–3 hour checks, a 24-hour fix-or-penalize model, and updated language on what counts as commercial.
Platforms are no longer treating “I didn’t know” as a valid excuse. They’re also increasingly comfortable flipping the “off” switch on accounts that feel risky, because from their side, it’s cheaper to over-enforce and deal with a few angry creators than to deal with regulators.
Logie’s breakdown of the update calls out three major shifts: tighter IP rules, changes to commission calculations, and expanded ineligible product categories.
Let’s unpack those in practical creator language.
2.1. Intellectual Property & Amazon Marks
Amazon’s Trademark Guidelines now stress that:
You may not alter Amazon Marks logos, smile, typography, colors, etc., in any way.
You must use only approved marks exactly as provided, e.g., the “Available at Amazon” logo.
You cannot use the main Amazon logo or smile mark at all as an influencer/publisher; instead, you’re expected to use the “available at Amazon” badge under strict graphic rules.
The updated Operating Agreement ties Program participation to strict compliance with these policies and explicitly calls violations “material breaches” that can justify termination and forfeiture of commissions.
What this means for your content:
Thumbnails that use a modified Amazon smile, custom colored Amazon logos, or UI screenshots with the logo slapped into a new layout are no longer “cute”; they’re now potential violations.
Overlays like “Amazon Approved” or graphics that visually imply a deeper relationship with Amazon than “Associate” can be problematic.
Using brand images scraped from a product page or from a third-party seller without explicit permission is riskier than ever. Logie’s analysis notes that Amazon is tightening the screws on misuse of seller imagery and anything that implies endorsement.
This is Amazon closing IP loopholes and signaling, “If your visuals make people think you are Amazon, we will treat that as a big deal.”
For creators, it means you should treat Amazon’s logo the way you’d treat a big brand’s logo in a TV commercial: carefully, only with approved assets, and never freestyled.
2.2. Commission Calculations & Eligibility
Logie’s breakdown highlights that Amazon has adjusted how commissions are calculated, including:
New exclusions and expanded “no-commission” product categories
Tweaks to cookie windows and qualifying actions
Tighter conditions on bonuses and stacked campaigns
The Operating Agreement itself points you to the Commission Income Statement and Program Policies as binding documents that can change and directly determine whether a click becomes income or not.
How this hits creators day-to-day:
Your best-performing video can keep pulling traffic and conversions while your payout quietly drops because the category moved to “ineligible” or a campaign bonus expired.
Strategies that relied on long cookie windows, overlapping campaigns, or “set and forget” gift guides are now more fragile.
Complaints like “My clicks are the same, but earnings are down 20–30%” are increasingly tied to these silent eligibility changes, not audience interest.
This is where the emotional frustration kicks in. From a creator’s perspective, it feels like the rules of the game are being changed mid-match.
From Amazon’s side, it’s them curbing abuse, optimizing margins, and narrowing what they consider “fair” affiliate compensation.
The painful truth: you can’t assume a category that paid well last quarter will behave the same this quarter.
2.3. Storefront & Video Compliance
Logie’s community chatter points to a noticeable increase in:
Videos are being rejected on Amazon because of:
Unapproved logos
Misleading or unverifiable claims
Questionable use of third-party images or brand marks
Storefronts are being audited or partially de-listed if they contain:
Outdated products
Broken or expired links
Products are now in ineligible categories
The Operating Agreement explicitly states that Amazon may:
Monitor and crawl your site and content.
Suspend or terminate your account and withhold commissions if they believe their brand, reputation, or legal exposure is at risk, sometimes even when breaches aren’t directly tied to the specific products you’re promoting.
What this looks like in real life:
A creator edits an old video title to add a stronger claim, “Best Amazon knife set ever guaranteed to last a lifetime”. The content passes manual review at first. Weeks later, automated scanning flags the claim as misleading for a product that doesn’t actually guarantee lifetime durability. Result: video removed or storefront flagged.
Another creator uses a seller’s image without written permission. Amazon’s IP tools, combined with its trademark rules, treat this as misuse even if “everyone else does it.”
We’ve moved from “video-by-video risk” to “account-level trust scores.” Once Amazon’s systems decide you’re sloppy with IP or claims, it’s not just one video at risk; your entire presence can be seen as a liability.
3. What Changed in TikTok’s Rules in 2025
TikTok’s 2025 changes fall into two big buckets for creators:
Stricter commercial content disclosure rules
Updated Community Guidelines: AI, misinformation, and regulated goods with heavier AI enforcement
Both directly affect TikTok Shop sellers, UGC creators, affiliate marketers, and anyone posting content that nudges people to buy.
3.1. Commercial Content Disclosure
TikTok’s official “Commercial Content Disclosure” help page, updated September 2025, now makes several things crystal clear:
If you promote a brand, product, or service, you must turn on the commercial content disclosure setting.
TikTok treats content as “commercial” if it shows:
Financial incentives codes, links, #ad, etc.
Brand mentions or visible logos.
Product recommendations, tutorials, or “buy now” style CTAs
If TikTok’s systems detect commercial content without proper disclosure, you’ll get a notification and have 24 hours to either:
Turn on the disclosure.
Or appeal if you believe it’s not branded content.
If you don’t fix it, the video can become ineligible for the For You page, severely limiting reach.
From September 1, 2025, content detected as commercial and left with undisclosed risks, limited reach, and FYP exclusion, with detection happening within 2–3 hours of posting.
What this means for you:
That “soft” UGC where you casually mention a product and drop a code in the caption? TikTok may treat it as branded content even if you don’t.
If you publish, go to bed, and don’t check notifications, you can wake up to a video that has essentially been shadow-limited because you missed the 24-hour disclosure window.
“I forgot to toggle it on” is now an avoidable mistake, not a technicality.
This is actually fair from a viewer-trust perspective, but brutal for busy creators. The practical mindset shift is: if money can trace back to a video, treat it as branded content by default.
3.2. Updated Community Guidelines
In August 2025, TikTok announced updates to its Community Guidelines, taking effect September 13, 2025, with a focus on:
Stronger rules on misinformation and misuse of the platform
New or clarified rules around AI-generated content, especially if it’s misleading or harmful
A unified “regulated goods and services” policy includes gambling, alcohol, tobacco, weapons, etc.
Clearer documentation and “rules-at-a-glance” summaries for creators
Key points that hit creators:
TikTok explicitly prohibits automation tools, scripts, or tricks designed to bypass systems, e.g., fake engagement tools, bot networks. They connect this directly to potential account bans.
They stress that AI or edited content that’s misleading on “matters of public importance” or harmful to individuals is not allowed, even if labeled.
Coverage of these updates notes that TikTok will reduce visibility of certain commercial content, especially where it pushes people to shop off-platform in markets where TikTok Shop exists.
Practical implications:
If you use AI avatars, AI voiceovers, or deepfaked product demos, you’ll need to be very careful not just with labeling but with what you imply.
Aggressive “hacky” funnels like “DM me for the real link,” off-platform purchase funnels, or tricky claims around health, finance, or politics can be punished not just at the video level but at the account reputation level.
Using unofficial automation to boost comments or views is now more clearly tied to ban risk than ever.
3.3. Enforcement Style
TikTok’s own numbers say 85%+ of guideline-violating content is removed by automation, with most of it taken down before user reports.
That means:
Borderline content, e.g., strong before/after claims, unlabelled AI, vague disclosure, is at high risk of false positives.
Appeals exist, but the burden is on you to respond quickly and to have your house in order, clear disclosure, consistent patterns, and documented deals.
TikTok is becoming less forgiving of “messy but well-intentioned” creators. You don’t need to be perfect, but you do need to be consistent so that your account behavior looks clean to an algorithm that only sees patterns.
4. What Getting It Wrong Feels Like
In recent community sessions, creators have shared painful stories that illustrate how these policies land in real life:
David’s Amazon story.
David UTECHPIA Nguyen thought he complied. He’d barely changed his setup and could point to dozens of similar creators doing the same thing.
Then, during a period of heightened moderation, his Amazon account was terminated without a meaningful chance to fix things, wiping out his Q4 plans and the storefront he’d spent years cultivating.
“Zero-strike” bans.
Some creators report losing access without clear prior warnings: one email citing an old or unclear violation, followed quickly by account loss or demotion. In Amazon’s case, the Operating Agreement explicitly allows them to cease payment of all commission income and terminate participation after a material breach.
Emotionally, this feels unfair. Rationally, it’s a reminder: you’re building your business on rented land.
The goal isn’t to scare you into paralysis; it’s to make you proactive instead of reactive.
5. How Amazon Influencers Can Protect Themselves in 2025
Here’s how to translate all of this into a practical Amazon game plan.
5.1. Run a Real Compliance Sweep
At least once a month (weekly during Q4), go through:
Your top-earning videos and lives
Your storefront and key idea lists
Your most-clicked blog posts / social posts with Amazon links
For each, check:
Logos & marks
Are you using only approved assets (“Available at Amazon” logo) exactly as provided
Have you accidentally used the main Amazon smile or logo in a thumbnail, overlay, or background? That’s now explicitly not permitted for influencers.
Seller imagery & UI screenshots
Do you use images straight from product pages or third-party sellers without written permission? With IP enforcement tightening, that’s increasingly risky.
Language & claims
Are you promising lifetime results, guaranteed outcomes, or anything that sounds like you’re speaking for Amazon, not as an independent creator?
Are you crossing into “review manipulation” territory, encouraging reviews in exchange for incentives, which Amazon specifically prohibits?
Link and category eligibility
Track which products suddenly go from good earners to zero commission. Often, they’ve moved into an ineligible category or lost eligibility via quiet policy updates.
5.2. Treat Your Disclosure & Bio as Legal Infrastructure
Always include a clear associate disclosure, such as:
The Operating Agreement still expects a version of this, and misrepresenting your relationship can be a material breach.
Make sure your bios don’t suggest you are Amazon, or officially represent them. Avoid usernames, domains, and profile names that include “Amazon” in ways the trademark guidelines prohibit.
Think of your disclosure and branding as your “compliance seatbelt.” You don’t put it on because you expect to crash; you put it on because if something happens, you want the best possible outcome.
5.3. Watch Your Analytics Through a Policy Lens
Don’t just look at views and clicks. Look for patterns like:
Normal clicks, collapsing commission, likely eligibility, or category changes
Sudden video rejections or long review times, possible IP/logo or claim issues
Drops in storefront earnings with normal traffic, possible product ineligibility, or link problems
If something looks off, check:
The “What’s changed” page and recent updates for the Associates Program.
Community resources (Logie, Amazon influencer subreddits, etc.), where others may have already spotted a pattern.
6. How TikTok Creators Can Stay Safer in 2025
6.1. Make Disclosure a Habit
On TikTok, the safest default is simple:
If a video can be tied to money, affiliate commissions, sponsorships, gifted products, brand partnerships, or even aggressive self-promotion, turn on the commercial content disclosure toggle.
That’s exactly what TikTok expects, and failure to do so can result in FYP ineligibility after the 24-hour correction window.
Practical workflow:
Turn the “Disclose commercial content” toggle on by default for anything even slightly commercial.
For third-party brand deals, mark it as “Paid partnership”; for your own brand, select the appropriate “your brand” option.
Add simple verbal or caption disclosures “Ad,” “Paid partnership,” “Affiliate link” on top. It helps with audience trust and regulators like the FTC.
6.2. Clean Up AI and “Too Good to Be True” Content
Given TikTok’s new language around AI and misinformation:
Label AI-generated avatars or voices clearly. Please don’t use them to impersonate real people or authority figures.
Avoid AI “before/after” that exaggerates product performance, which can fall under both misleading commercial content and misinformation.
Be extra cautious with health, money, and political claims. If a product promises impossible outcomes, don’t repeat them as guarantees.
AI is still a huge opportunity on TikTok, but the platforms are treating unlabeled or misleading AI content almost like counterfeit money right now. The more clearly you separate “creative enhancement” from “false representation,” the safer you’ll be.
6.3. Respect the No-Bots Rule
TikTok’s updated guidelines call out automation tools, scripts, and tricks explicitly, tying them to content removal and account bans.
That means:
No “view bots,” comment pods run via shady tools, or engagement scripts.
Be careful with third-party growth tools if they promise “guaranteed views” and plug into your account, you’re taking on real ban risk.
Short-term, those tools make you feel like you’re winning. Long-term, they’re a big red flag in an environment where TikTok is under constant scrutiny.
7. Cross-Platform Survival Strategy
Instead of trying to memorize every line of every policy, build a creator operating system that naturally stays on the right side of the rules.
7.1. Adopt “Compliance-First Creativity”
When you plan a campaign, ask:
What is the promise?
Is it realistic, and does it match what the product actually delivers?
What is the relationship?
Are you clearly disclosing how you’re being compensated?
What is the footprint?
Where will this content live: Amazon, TikTok, email, other socials, and do the visuals/logos you’re using comply with each platform’s rules?
If a concept only works when you hide the relationship, overhype results, or lean on unauthorized logos, it’s not a sustainable idea in 2025.
7.2. Diversify But Don’t Duplicate Bad Habits Everywhere
You absolutely should:
Build multiple income streams: Amazon, TikTok Shop, other affiliate programs, your own products, and an email list.
Keep backups of content, links, and analytics so you can move quickly if a platform locks you out.
But you should not:
Copy the same non-compliant practices like unlabelled branded content or aggressive claims across every platform. Policy risks stack; they don’t cancel out.
8. Conclusion
Account suspensions in 2025 are not just horror stories from careless creators. They’re increasingly happening to smart, experienced influencers who didn’t realize the rules had shifted under their feet.
On Amazon, the shift is toward tighter IP control, stricter commission eligibility, and harsher penalties for anything that threatens brand reputation or legal safety.
On TikTok, the shift is toward full transparency for commercial content plus a much tougher stance on AI misuse, misinformation, and automation.
The good news?
If you’re reading this, you’re already ahead of most people. You’re not burying your head in the sand; you’re treating your creator business like a real business.
Here’s what I’d do this week if I were in your shoes:
Pick one day to do a focused Amazon + TikTok compliance sweep of your top-earning content.
Standardize your disclosures, bio, captions, toggles, and spoken disclaimers.
Fix any obvious logo/IP issues, especially Amazon smile mark use.
Talk to your creator community, Logie, group chats, and Discords about what they’re seeing patterns show up there before they show up in official docs.
You can’t eliminate all risk. But you can dramatically reduce the odds that one email, one notification, or one bot sweep erases everything you’ve built.
And in a year where account suspensions are surging, that proactive mindset is one of the most powerful “features” you can add to your creator toolkit.
Logie streamlines influencer discovery, product distribution, and content performance to drive measurable sales for eCommerce brands. We also equip content creators with the smart tools, brand partnerships, and commission opportunities they need to turn content into income.
