Pinterest suspends accounts all the time, and for a lot of reasons. However, an account suspension does not mean your account was permanently deleted or deactivated.
In fact, Pinterest is generally very forgiving, so it’s possible for a single account to get suspended and reactivated multiple times without any long-term issues.
In most cases, all it takes to reactivate a suspended Pinterest account is appealing the suspension and explain in writing what happened and how you’re going to fix or prevent it.
Here is how you can appeal a Pinterest suspension:
Figure out why your account was suspended
Most of the times the reason your account was suspended will be specified in an email or when you try to log into your suspended account.
You need to at least have an idea why your account was suspended because you will have to justify / explain the situation when appealing.
(OPTIONAL) Clean the website connected to the Pinterest account
If you have a website associated with the suspended Pinterest account, then there is a very strong possibility your account was suspended because of the content on your site.
For example, the website could promote misinformation, illegal products (such as drugs) or deceptive products (such as miracle cures), promote hate speech, impersonate other people or companies etc.
It’s easy to understand why Pinterest would suspend accounts connected with such websites: Pinterest could potentially be held legally responsible and it just doesn’t make for good publicity for Pinterest to be associated with websites that skirt the limits of the law.
If you suspect this might be the reason for your suspension, then clean your website of bad content and make it clear to Pinterest you’ve done so when you’re appealing the suspension.
Click on the link in the Pinterest suspension email.
This is the simplest method to reactivate your account and requires you to click the link in the email and follow the guided steps to appeal the suspension.
One of these steps requires you to “Describe the issue”.
This is where you have to come clean with your mistake and explain to the human reviewer what happened, how you plan to fix things and prevent stuff like this from happening again in the future.
If you disagree with the suspension cause or think it was a mistake by Pinterest (their automated systems do make mistakes) then write that down too. However, if you feel even slightly responsible it’s best to be honest about it.
Go to Pinterest’s website and appeal the suspension manually
The link in the email above can only be accessed for 7 days, so if it expires you will have to contact Pinterest manually.
To do so, simply access this link and follow the steps.
Appeal the suspension. Again.
If Pinterest didn’t like your explanation, or you didn’t do enough to fix the policy violations in your account, then you may get an email like the one below that rejects the reactivation of your account.
If this happens, you’ll have to take a deeper look into your account, any site that is connected to it, and figure out what exactly caused the suspension and remove any of those issues.
Once that is done, contact Pinterest again through the methods above and carefully explain everything you’ve done to fix the issue since your last suspension appeal was rejected.
Wait for the suspension to expire
If you’ve appealed the suspension multiple times and still can’t get your account reactivated, then the last option you have is to just wait and hope the suspension expires by itself and automatically reactivates your account.
This isn’t guaranteed to happen, but accounts that had minor violations (such as spam) are rarely permanently suspended.
Permanent suspensions are usually reserved for accounts that promote hate speech, disinformation, terrorism, violence etc.
The final question in this case is how long should you wait?
There is no firm answer to this, since it depends on the violation. But it can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
You just have to try and log in to your account every day and hope the suspension expired.
Why was your Pinterest account suspended?
A Pinterest account suspension usually happens because of a community guideline policy violation or a mistake by Pinterest’s automation tools.
A mistaken suspension caused by Pinterest’s automation is easy to fix and report and shouldn’t require you to do anything except appeal and explain that you think it was a mistake.
If you do believe you violated the Community Guidelines, then your response should depend on the severity of the violation, whether the violation could be interpreted as an honest mistake or an intentional violation.
Pinterest account suspension because of spam
This is by far the most common reason why a Pinterest account might be suspended and, in Pinterest’s words, is caused by:
Creating or saving content that is repetitive, deceptive, or irrelevant in an attempt to make money.
Spam violations frequently happen when using Pinterest automation software that schedule and automatically post Pins, Repins and saves so you don’t have to do it manually.
The problem is that most such software isn’t certified by Pinterest, so conent published through uncertified tools immediately stands out as spammy, and thus can bring about a suspension.
If you’re using Pinterest for business purposes, then make sure you use automation tools that are certified such as Tailwind.
However, even if you did use Tailwind, you still have to adjust the posting frequency so it’s not excessive, otherwise you can still get a spam suspension.
Another potential reason for a spam suspension are new accounts pining, repining and saving too much.
New Pinterest accounts generally have hidden limits to how much they can post as a prevention mechanism against bots.
How to solve a Pinterest suspension caused by spam:
To remove a Pinterest account suspension caused by spam, simply go to https://help.pinterest.com/en/contact, click “Appeals” -> “Appeal Account Suspension” and explain that you didn’t correctly use automation software or just got carried away and broke Pinterest’s action limits. Tell them you’ll be much more careful next time, that it won’t happen again, press Send and that should be it!
For a small violation such as this your account is almost guaranteed to be reactivated within a few days.
Suspension caused by bots or tampering tools
Another possible cause for an account suspension is using Pinterest while on VPNs or proxy services, especially if you use them to switch between different countries very quickly.
This could trigger Pinterest’s protection tools, since such bots can slow down their service or can even be a sign your account was hacked and used by someone from a different country.
A similar cause for suspension is using tools that “tamper with Pinterest’s infrastructure”. A common reason for this suspension are software tools that scrape a lot of data from Pinterest or various uncertified tools marketers sometimes use to squeeze more information from the social network.
How to solve a Pinterest suspension caused by bots:
To remove a Pinterest account suspension caused by bots or tampering, simply go to https://help.pinterest.com/en/contact, click “Appeals” -> “Appeal Account Suspension” and explain that you were using Pinterest while on a VPN or proxy and simply didn’t know it could have caused a conflict.
This is an even smaller violation than the spam suspension, so it should be pretty easy and quick to reactivate your account.
Using a personal account as a business account
Pinterest has two types of accounts, Personal and Business.
Personal is the default and the one used by the vast majority of Pinterest users.
Business accounts, as the name implies, are used to do business stuff such as selling products, posting affiliate links etc.
Business accounts generally have more features than personal accounts, but much more importantly, business accounts offer certain legal protections to Pinterest that are more extensive than those found in Personal accounts.
This is how Pinterest describes these legal protections:
If we are sued because of something your business does on Pinterest, you have to pay our costs. Also, you should have created a business account and agreed to our Business Terms in the first place.
Trying to do business stuff on Pinterest without having a Business account is a reason for suspension in Pinterest’s eyes.
So what classifies as “business” activities? Well pretty much anything that directly earns you money, such as posting affiliate links, links to an online store, receiving money from other companies to publish sponsored pins etc.
How to solve a Pinterest suspension caused by not using a business account:
To remove a Pinterest account suspension caused by not using a business account, simply go to https://help.pinterest.com/en/contact, click “Appeals” -> “Appeal Account Suspension” and explain that you were indeed trying to do business stuff on Pinterest while using a Personal account, but that you intend to immediately switch over to a Business account if they remove the suspension.
Depending on the nature of your business, how many visitors complained to Pinterest about your practices and how long you’ve been doing this, this could be either a small or more severe violation.
Thus, solving it can either be done pretty quickly, or it could potentially take a while and multiple appeal attempts to reactivate your account.
Posting harmful or illegal content
One of the more severe violations you can do on Pinterest is to post harmful or illegal content, and these violations will usually permanently delete your account.
This category of violations include:
- Posting racist comments or pins.
- Child porn.
- Publishing content that promotes hate, terrorism etc.
- Links to stores that sell drugs or illegal substances and materials.
- Impersonating a person or business.
- Infringing IP rights.
- Spreading misinformation.
- Harassing or criticizing other Pinterest users.
- Showing exploitation of people or animals.
- Promoting deceptive products such as miracle cures.
How to solve a Pinterest suspension caused by posting harmful or illegal content:
Just like with the previously mentioned violations, you still have to go to https://help.pinterest.com/en/contact, click “Appeals” -> “Appeal Account Suspension”.
Unlike the ones mentioned above however, chances of recovering your account are much smaller and generally depend on how severe the violation was.
Thus, an account suspended by calling someone “dumb” is much more likely to be reactivated than one where the user tried to promote drugs.
There is no silver bullet for these types of violations, and you just have to properly justify and explain what happened, if that can be done, and hope Pinterest accepts.