Does TikTok Promote Videos About Self-Harm, Eating Disorders?

TikTok’s algorithms are selling movies about self-harm and consuming issues to weak teenagers, based on a report revealed Wednesday that highlights considerations about social media and its impression on youth psychological well being.

Researchers on the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate created TikTok accounts for fictional teen personas within the US, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The researchers working the accounts then “liked” movies about self-harm and consuming issues to see how TikTok’s algorithm would reply.

Within minutes, the wildly widespread platform was recommending movies about shedding weight and self-harm, together with ones that includes photos of fashions and idealized physique varieties, photographs of razor blades and discussions of suicide.

When the researchers created accounts with person names that urged a specific vulnerability to consuming issues — names that included the phrases “shed pounds” for example — the accounts were fed even more harmful content.

“It’s like being stuck in a hall of distorted mirrors where you’re constantly being told you’re ugly, you’re not good enough, maybe you should kill yourself,” said the center’s CEO Imran Ahmed, whose organization has offices in the US and UK. “It is literally pumping the most dangerous possible messages to young people.”

Social media algorithms work by identifying topics and content of interest to a user, who is then sent more of the same as a way to maximize their time on the site. But social media critics say the same algorithms that promote content about a particular sports team, hobby or dance craze can send users down a rabbit hole of harmful content.

It’s a particular problem for teens and children, who tend to spend more time online and are more vulnerable to bullying, peer pressure or negative content about eating disorders or suicide, according to Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, a nonprofit that supporters greater online protections for children.

He added that TikTok is not the only platform failing to protect young users from harmful content and aggressive data collection.

“All of these harms are linked to the business model,” Golin said. “It doesn’t make any difference what the social media platform is.”

In a statement from a company spokesperson, TikTok disputed the findings, noting that the researchers didn’t use the platform like typical users, and saying that the results were skewed as a result. The company also said a user’s account name shouldn’t affect the kind of content the user receives.

TikTok prohibits users who are younger than 13, and its official rules prohibit videos that encourage eating disorders or suicide. Users in the US who search for content about eating disorders on TikTok receive a prompt offering mental health resources and contact information for the National Eating Disorder Association.

“We regularly consult with health experts, remove violations of our policies, and provide access to supportive resources for anyone in need,” said the statement from TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company now based in Singapore.

Despite the platform’s efforts, researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that content about eating disorders had been viewed on TikTok billions of times. In some cases, researchers found, young TikTok users were using coded language about eating disorders in an effort to evade TikTok’s content moderation.

The sheer amount of harmful content being fed to teens on TikTok shows that self-regulation has failed, Ahmed said, adding that federal rules are needed to force platforms to do more to protect children.

Ahmed noted that the version of TikTok offered to domestic Chinese audiences is designed to promote content about math and science to young users, and limits how long 13- and 14-year-olds can be on the site each day.

A proposal before Congress would impose new rules limiting the data that social media platforms can collect regarding young users and create a new office within the Federal Trade Commission focused on protecting young social media users ‘ privacy.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Senator Edward Markey, D-Mass., said Wednesday that he’s optimistic lawmakers from both parties can agree on the need for tougher regulations on how platforms are accessing and using the information of young users.

“Data is the uncooked materials that huge tech makes use of to trace, to control, and to traumatize younger folks in our nation each single day,” Markey said.