The controversy behind TikTok’s ban of ‘SkinnyTok’: The disturbing truth behind the trend

TikTok users that search for ‘SkinnyTok’ will now be rerouted to mental health support resources. The popular short-form video-sharing platform blocked search results for SkinnyTok after scrutiny from audiovisual and digital watchdogs in France and the European Union prompted by wellness experts raising concerns.

The hashtag that exploded in popularity in recent months is linked to unhealthy weight lose, extreme thinness and weight shaming content.

Clara Chappaz, France’s minister for digital media, celebrated the move by TikTok saying in a post on social media: “SkinnyTok is OVER!”

“This is a first collective victory. I salute it,” she added.

What is SkinnyTok? Why did TikTok ban its content?

The content under the hashtag SkinnyTok was promoted as harmless health and weight loss tips, but often glorified extreme thinness and unrealistic body standards, especially among teen girls and young women, while encouraging eating disorders like anorexia. Tens of thousands of videos were published under the hashtag on TikTok, racking up millions of views, some of which show people that are frightfully underweight.

This kind of content violates the short video sharing platform own rules which state on its ‘Mental and Behavioral Health’ page that “showing or promoting disordered eating and dangerous weight loss behaviors,” is not allowed.

While some content may have been encouraging positive behaviors, other creators were promoting toxic mantras to help encourage viewers to have “discipline” and to stick to a strict unhealthy diet and achieve extreme weight loss and thinness.

The mean phrases, which goad and shame, are a form of “digital self-bullying,” says Dr. Jillian Lampert from the Emily Program, a national eating disorder care provider.

“These algorithms are a powerful driver of content that iterates upon itself,” Dr. Lampert told The New York Post. “Looking at one TikTok with toxic body image content will teach the algorithms to send you more and more and more until your feed has become an avalanche of toxic content.”

“It is far from funny”

Los Angeles-based licensed clinical social worker Shira Rosenbluth, speaking to CNN, wondered if some of the most outrageous content wasn’t so just to be “rage-bait” to draw clicks. However, these influencers were putting the primary audience, young women and teen girls, in harm’s way.

Mallary Tenore Tarpley, an assistant professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin told the outlet that she often saw specific anorexia symptoms in the trending motifs.

“Sometimes the advice given may seem like it’s supposed to be humorous, but in fact a lot of people struggling with eating disorders actually engage in those very same behaviors,” she told CNN. “It is far from funny.”

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