Tiktok has begun to prevent search results on the platform for content associated with the #skinnytok label after increasing criticisms. This decision is considered as a response to videos that encourage unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders, especially among young users. Critics say that most of the contents carrying this label are normalizing dangerous dietary behaviors and negatively affect users’ body perception.
Tiktok’s new blocking application came after French Digital Affairs Minister Clara Chappaz’s campaign throughout Europe. Since April, Chappaz has been making a series of attempts against the #skinnytok label with French and European Union regulators. “These videos, which encourage extreme weaknesses, are unacceptable and unacceptable. Digital vehicles can be great in terms of progress and freedom, but they can upset lives when used incorrectly. Social media platforms cannot escape responsibility,” he said.
Can Tiktok do more?
However, the fact that the platform prevents access to a particular label does not contribute to the radical solution of the problem, according to experts. Brooke Erin Duffy, Professor of Communication from the University of Cornell, told the New York Times that users are very creative in overcoming content control systems, “Users know how these platforms work very well. It does not take long to find new ways to overcome content control,” he said. This shows that Tiktok’s limited interventions may not be sufficient to transform user behavior.
Tiktok had taken similar steps before. In 2020, it introduced some advertising limitations against content that may adversely affect users’ body perception, for example, for example, fasting on fasting applications or slimming supplements. In 2021, the National Eating Disorders Association (National Eating Disorder Association) went to cooperate with the information and support resources for users struggling with eating disorders.
In addition, in the same year, Tiktok’s algorithm of the “For You) page algorithm was aimed to reduce the psychological effects that repeated negative content could have on the user. Although these algorithmic updates aim to increase the variety of content that users face, some experts are not sure of the sustainability and effect of these measures.