Tiktok no longer shows search results for the hashtag #Skinnytok. The criticisms that argued this block said that certain videos with this label promoted food disorders and other unhealthy or risky eating behaviors. We contacted Tiktok to comment on this development.
The French Minister of State for Digital Affairs, Clara Chappaz, was one of the politicians leading to this particular hashtag. She has been campaigning against #Skinnytok with French and European regulators since then. “These videos favoring extreme slimming are revolting and absolutely unacceptable,” said Chappaz. “Digital tools are wonderful in terms of progress and freedom, but poorly used, they can break lives … Social networks cannot escape their responsibility.”
Although blocking potentially harmful hashtag’s search results is a positive step, this only makes obstacles on the path of people who want to search for similar videos. “Users are warned,” said Cornell University Professor Brooke Erin Duffy The New York Times. “They know how to work on these platforms and how to escape their content moderation systems.”
A block on a hashtag is only the last of Tiktok’s fragmentary approach to content that could encourage food disorders. In 2020, he placed who could “promote a negative or harmful body image”, such as fasting applications and weight loss supplements. Tiktok started with the National Eating Disorder Association in 2021 to provide more resources to users with food disorders. Later that year, he also introduced a new page for you in order to reduce the impact of the search for too many repeated clips on a negative subject.
