TikTok doesn't need to promote negative body comparisons and is cracking down on posts about eating disorders, dangerous weight reduction habits and potentially harmful weight management products.
The hugely popular social media app updated its community guidelines last week, introducing a series of recent rules that it hopes will make the platform safer for its roughly 1 billion users worldwide.
The initiative comes as TikTok, owned by Beijing tech company ByteDance, faces increased scrutiny of its operations and content amid the fight possible ban within the USA
Weight loss videos are a big category on TikTok, with influencers detailing and demonstrating how they lost weight. Such videos have turn out to be popular in recent times with the appearance of injectable prescription medications corresponding to: B. increased OzempicWegovy and Mounjaro, which many individuals use to shed weight quickly.
Critics say the soaring demand for the drugs has exposed the cracks within the body positivity movement and shown that there continues to be enormous pressure to look thin in any respect costs. They say TikTok and Instagram, anti-aging filters, selfie culture and relentless self-promotion by celebrities and influencers have contributed to the issue.
TikTok already had policies on body image and eating disorders, however the updated guidelines explicitly divide such content into 4 categories: allowed; not allowed; limited to users 18 years and older; and ineligible for the “For You Feed,” TikTok’s personalized suggestion algorithm. They come into force on May seventeenth.
The recent guidelines are intended to “increase understanding and provide greater transparency about our rules and how we enforce them,” Adam Presser, TikTok's head of operations and the corporate's trust and safety department, said in a press release.
In the past, TikTok creators said they generally saw posts restricted or removed without understanding why they were flagged.
TikTok now clearly states that it bans videos “that show, describe, promote, offer, or request coaching for eating disorders or dangerous weight loss behaviors.”
The company defines these behaviors as extremely low-calorie diets, binge eating and intentional vomiting, misuse of medicines or supplements for weight reduction, and exercise during serious injury or illness.
TikTok has specifically banned content that shows or promotes unhealthy body measurements and “body checking” trends, corresponding to comparing the scale of body parts to home items. The facilitation of trade or marketing of products for weight reduction or muscle constructing can also be on the decline.
Content restricted to users 18 and older – and in addition ineligible for the For You feed – includes showing or promoting “potentially harmful weight management behaviors,” corresponding to: B. restrictive low-calorie diets; using medications or supplements to shed weight or construct muscle; and exercises designed for rapid and significant weight reduction, corresponding to “cardio routines that promise to help you lose a waistline in a week,” the corporate said.
TikTok also said it might restrict before-and-after transformation photos that promote weight reduction and muscle-building products, in addition to videos that promote body types as “ideal or perfect” in the event that they are related to potentially harmful weight management behaviors.
“We want TikTok to be a place that promotes self-esteem,” the corporate said.
Creatives who’ve documented their weight reduction journey with the brand new class of classy drugs said they were disenchanted by the approach. TikTok, they said, has turn out to be a crucial resource and close-knit community for individuals who have struggled for years to shed weight and get healthy.
“I think countless lives have been saved by being able to communicate through these medications,” said Kelsey Martinez, 32, who posted in September 2022 about using Mounjaro, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes. to shed weight weighed 232 kilos when she began weekly injections; last fall it had dropped to 153.
“It's about providing access for obese people, and that's something we don't always have,” said Martinez, who lives in Los Angeles and has 296,000 TikTok followers. “So I think it will be very damaging. You are simply shutting down and isolating a group of people who are already so used to being shamed and cornered.”
A TikTok spokesperson said content about medically needed health interventions under the guidance of a health care provider or healthcare skilled is allowed, including discussions of glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs, which include the diabetes drug Ozempic. The spokesperson added that content about using GLP-1 drugs for weight reduction could still be discovered through other means, corresponding to through search tools or by following an account, even when it shouldn’t be eligible for the For You feed.
show or describe eating contests; Fitness programs, sports, and nutrition that usually are not primarily focused on extreme weight reduction, marathon training, or bodybuilding competitions; and spiritual weight-reduction plan and fasting remain permitted.
Michelle York, a full-time content creator from Moorpark, said she understands the app is currently in a “really difficult position” as a consequence of a divestment or ban law within the United States, where it has 170 million users was pending.
“TikTok is under a lot of scrutiny and they need to do everything they can to make sure it’s a safe place,” York, 40, said. But “I think they are overcompensating by issuing these new policies.”
Although she believes her content is helpful and removed from promoting “supplements to lose weight quickly,” and although her follower base of 203,000 people begs her to proceed offering weight reduction content, she already has a few of her old ones Mounjaro videos are shot privately and can focus much more on lifestyle and wonder content in the long run.
“It's really disheartening to be told I can't share this anymore, and now my platform that I've worked so hard to build is at risk,” York said. “The problem is that this is my job now – I rely on it for my income and I can't post things that jeopardize that.”
TikTok's latest Community Guidelines also include recent and updated definitions of the corporate's policies on hate speech and health misinformation.
In announcing the updated rules, TikTok said it might implement a “warning strike” the primary time a creator violates the platform's community guidelines.
“The strike will not count toward an account’s strike list, but any future violations will,” Presser said. “We notify creators of what rule they violated and how to appeal if they believe an error was made. Zero-tolerance policies (e.g., incitement to violence) are out of the question for these memories. Accounts will be suspended immediately.”
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