Social media giant, TikTok has announced updates to its content guidelines, aiming to protect its youngest users from harmful weight and dieting posts.
The new policy, hailed as one of the most comprehensive by a social media company to date, targets potentially harmful content promoting weight management behaviors, excessive exercise, and certain medications.
Also, the move comes as TikTok faces a potential ban in the United States (US) and follows testimony from advocates like Emma Lembke, who shared her personal experience of how social media led her to disordered eating.
Lembke, now 21, spent hours on Instagram as a 12-year-old, initially following various accounts before her feed shifted to display harmful content, including pro-anorexia posts and extreme exercise routines.
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TikTok’s updated guidelines aim to remove such content from the “For You” feed, which is driven by an algorithm catering to users’ interests.
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The new regulations specifically target posts promoting extended intermittent fasting, rapid weight loss exercises, and medications or supplements for muscle gain, including drugs like Ozempic.
Furthermore, the policy seeks to curb content promoting anabolic steroid use and products for weight loss or appetite suppression.
Machine learning models will flag potentially dangerous content, which will then be reviewed by a human moderation team to determine if it should be removed from the main feed, age-restricted feeds, or the platform altogether.
The goal is to “interrupt repetitive content patterns” and prevent users from being exposed to diet and weight loss content in sequential order or repeatedly.
TikTok’s director of policy in the United States, Tara Wadhwa revealed the company’s commitment to ensuring users aren’t exposed to harmful content, particularly in the “For You” feed.
