How to Make Someone a Mod on TikTok Live

Adding moderators to your TikTok LIVE is one of the best ways to protect your community and keep the chat flowing smoothly. This guide will walk you through exactly how to make someone a mod, what their role entails, and how to choose the right people for the job.

Why You Absolutely Need Moderators for Your TikTok LIVE

Going live on TikTok is a fantastic way to connect with your audience in real-time, but managing the comment section while staying focused on your content is a huge challenge. That’s where moderators come in. A good moderation team is the difference between a chaotic mess and a thriving, positive live stream.

Here are the biggest reasons having mods is a non-negotiable for serious creators:

• Keep Trolls and Spammers at Bay: The internet has its fair share of people looking to cause trouble. Moderators act as your first line of defense, quickly muting or blocking users who drop hateful comments, spam links, or try to derail the conversation. This keeps your chat clean and safe for everyone else.
• Foster a Positive and Welcoming Community: Your mods help set the tone. By filtering out negativity, they empower the positive members of your community to engage more freely. When viewers feel safe, they’re more likely to participate, ask questions, and become loyal followers.
• Manage Repetitive Questions: If you're a creator who gets asked the same questions over and over ("Where are you from?" "What camera do you use?"), mods can gently answer them in the chat. This frees you up from repeating yourself and keeps the stream's momentum going.
• Allows You to Focus on Your Content: Without having to constantly scan the chat for bad actors, you can relax and be yourself. You can focus on delivering great content, engaging with positive comments, and providing value to your audience - the things that actually grow your brand.

What Can a TikTok LIVE Moderator Actually Do?

When you grant someone moderator privileges, you’re giving them a specific set of tools to manage the chat during your live stream. They aren't given access to your account or any personal information. Their power is limited to managing the LIVE they are assigned to.

Here’s a breakdown of a moderator's permissions:

• Mute Viewers: If a viewer is being disruptive but doesn’t quite warrant a permanent block, a mod can mute them for a specific duration. This temporarily removes their ability to comment, giving them a chance to cool off without an outright ban.
• Block Viewers: For more serious offenses like hate speech, spam, or persistent harassment, moderators can block a user from your LIVE entirely. This removes them from the stream and prevents them from rejoining.
• Report Comments: Mods can report comments that violate TikTok's Community Guidelines directly from the stream, helping to keep the platform safer for everyone.

How to Choose the Right People to Be Your Moderators

Giving someone moderation powers is an act of trust. You’re making them an official representative of your brand during your livestreams, so choosing the right person is super important. Don’t just hand out the mod role to the first person who asks.

Look for people with these qualities:

• Trustworthiness: This is the most important trait. Choose people you know and trust, whether from real life or long-time members of your online community who have consistently shown themselves to be reliable and level-headed.
• Active and Consistent Supporters: The best mods are often your most loyal followers. They understand your content, your humor, and the specific vibe of your community. They know the inside jokes and can differentiate a harmless tease from genuine negativity.
• A Calm Demeanor: Moderating can be stressful. Trolls are intentionally trying to provoke a reaction. You need mods who won’t get flustered, take the bait, or engage in flame wars. Look for someone who is patient and can act decisively without emotion.
• Knowledge of TikTok's Rules: Ideally, your mods should have a basic understanding of TikTok's Community Guidelines. This helps them make fair and consistent decisions about what crosses the line.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Making Someone a Mod on TikTok

You can add moderators either before your stream starts or right in the middle of your broadcast. We’ll cover both methods.

Method 1: Adding Moderators Before Your LIVE Session

Setting up your mods ahead of time is the best way to be prepared. This ensures your team is ready to go the moment you hit the “GO LIVE” button.

1. Navigate to your TikTok profile page.
2. Tap the three-line menu icon ("hamburger menu") in the top-right corner.
3. From the menu that appears at the bottom, select "Creator tools."
4. Under the "LIVE" section, tap on "LIVE Center."
5. Scroll down and find the "Settings" option. Tap on it.
6. Now, tap on "Moderators." Here, you'll see a list of your current moderators (if you have any).
7. To add a new mod, tap the "+" icon or the "Add moderator" button, usually next to your own profile picture at the top.
8. A search bar will appear. Search for the username of the person you want to add. TikTok will suggest accounts as you type.
9. Find the correct user in the search results and tap the "Add" button next to their name.

That's it! They will now appear in your list of moderators and will automatically have moderator abilities the next time you go live.

Method 2: Adding Moderators During a LIVE Session

Sometimes you need to promote someone to a moderator on the fly. Maybe a trusted viewer is doing a great job in the chat, or perhaps one of your pre-assigned mods couldn't make it. TikTok makes it easy to assign mods right from the live stream interface.

1. While you are live, find a comment in the chat from the person you want to make a moderator.
2. Tap on their profile picture directly within the chat feed.
3. A small menu will pop up with a few options. Tap on "Manage."
4. From the next screen, you'll see several options, including Mute, Block, and Add as moderator. Tap "Add as moderator."

The user will be immediately promoted to a moderator for the remainder of that LIVE and for all future streams (until you remove them). You'll see a small moderator badge appear next to their name in the chat to confirm the change.

How to Manage or Remove Moderators

Circumstances change. If a moderator is no longer active or a good fit for the role, you can easily remove their privileges from the same screen where you added them.

1. Follow steps 1-6 from "Method 1" above to get back to the "Moderators" screen in your LIVE Center Settings.
2. You’ll see a list of everyone who has moderator permissions on your account.
3. To remove someone, simply tap the "Remove" button next to their username.

They will be instantly removed from the list, and their moderator permissions will be revoked for all future live sessions.

Best Practices for Working With Your Moderation Team

Simply appointing mods isn’t enough. To build a truly effective team and foster a great community, you need to manage them effectively. Think of them as your community partners.

• Create Clear Guidelines: Don't make your mods guess what the rules are. Write down a simple set of guidelines. What kind of language is not okay? Is self-promotion allowed? Should they just block spammers or mute them first? Clear rules lead to fair and consistent moderation.
• Establish a Private Communication Channel: Set up a private group chat for your mods on a platform like Discord or WhatsApp. This gives you a place to discuss your guidelines, share updates before a stream, and coordinate during the LIVE. It's also a great way for them to ask questions or alert you to a problem without having to type it in the public chat.
• Trust Their Judgment: You chose them for a reason. Avoid micromanaging or publicly questioning their decisions during a live stream. If you disagree with a mod's action, discuss it privately after the stream. Publicly undermining them weakens their authority.
• Show Your Appreciation: Moderating can be a thankless job. Make sure to thank your mods, both publicly and privately. Shout them out during your streams and tell them how much you appreciate their help. A little appreciation goes a long way in making them feel like a valued part of the team.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations, you now know everything you need to add, manage, and empower moderators for your TikTok LIVE broadcasts. By building a trusted team, you create a safer and more engaging environment that allows your community to thrive and lets you focus on creating the content you love.

Keeping up with your community during a LIVE is one part of the puzzle, but the conversation often continues in DMs and comments long after the virtual curtain falls. Keeping track of all those interactions across multiple social platforms can feel like a full-time job. That's why we built Postbase. Our unified inbox brings all your DMs and comments into one place, so you never miss a message. Combined with our visual content planner and reliable scheduling, you can efficiently manage your entire social presence, freeing you up to plan an even better LIVE for next time.