Tictok bursts on content that promotes disturbed eating

Los Angeles, California – Weight loss videos are a large part of the content of Tiktok. Now the company is expanding its policy on videos that promote dangerous attitudes to eating. Can it save the body’s positivity movement?

TikTok says it does not want to promote negative body comparisons. weight minister Habits and potentially harmful weight management products.

The very popular app on social media updated its guidelines for society last week and introduced a slate of new rules that it hopes will make the platform a safer place for its approximately 1 billion users all over the world.

The initiative comes at a time when Tiktok, which is owned by the Beijing technology company Bytadance, is facing increased review of its operations and content as it fights a potential ban in the United States.

Weight loss videos consist of a huge category on Tiktok, with influencers to a large extent detailed and demonstrated how they slim down. Such videos have spread in recent years with the increase in injectable prescription drugs such as OzempianWegovy and Mounjaro, which many use to quickly lose weight.

Critics say that the sky rocketing demand for the drugs has revealed the cracks in the body-positive movement, which shows that there is still enormous pressure to see thin at any cost. They say that TikTok and Instagram, Anti-Aging filters, selfie culture and relentless celebrity and influencing self-promotation all have contributed to the problem.

Tiktok already had policies around body image and disturbed eating, but the updated guidelines explicitly share such content into four categories: allowed, not allowed, limited to users 18 and older and unjustified for “for you feed”, TikTok’s personal recommendation algorithm. They will take effect on May 17.

The new guidelines are intended to “improve understanding and gain greater transparency about our rules and how we execute them,” said Adam Presser, Tiktok’s operations manager and the company’s trust and security unit, in a statement.

In the past, the Tiktok creators said they would sometimes see posts restricted or removed without understanding Why they were flagged.

TikTok now clearly says that it prohibits videos “that show, describe, market or offer or request coaching for undisturbed eating or dangerous weight loss.”

The company defines these behaviors as extreme calorie -fat diets, binging and deliberate vomiting, abuse of medication or dietary supplements for weight loss and exercise through serious injuries or illnesses.

TikTok urged specific content showing or promoting unhealthy body measurements and “Body control” trendsFor example, comparing the size of body parts to household objects, which is not allowed. Facilitating the trade or marketing of weight loss or muscle profit products is also on its way out.

Content that will be limited to users 18 and older-and which will also be eligible for your flow-incubator to show or promote “potentially harmful weight management behaviors” such as restrictive calorie diets; use medication or supplements for weight loss or muscle reinforcement; And exercises designed for fast and significant weight loss, such as “fitness training that promises to help you lose a waist size in a week,” the company said.

TikTok also said that it would limit photos before and after transformation that promotes weight loss and muscle gains, as well as videos that promote body types as “ideal or perfect” when associated with potentially harmful weight management behavior.

“We want Tiktok to be a place that encourages self -esteem,” the company said.

Creators who have documented their weight loss trips with the new class of trendy medicines said they were disappointed with the degradation. Tiktok, they said, has become an important resource and a close composite community for people who have been fighting for several years to throw pounds and become healthy.

A spokesman for TikTok said that content on medically necessary health interventions under the guidance of a medical or healthcare professional is allowed, including discussions about glucagon-like peptide 1 medication, which includes diabetes drug Ozempic.

The spokesman added that the content of using GLP-1 medicines for weight loss could still be detected in other ways, for example through search tools or by following an account, even if it is not eligible for you.

To show or describe competing family competitions; Fitness routines, sports and nutrition that are not primarily focused on extreme weight loss, marathon training or bodybuilding competitions; And religious dietary behavior and fasting will still be allowed.

Tiktok users will be allowed to condemn undisturbed eating, dangerous weight loss behavior or potentially harmful weight management “as long as it does not show or describes a diet or behavior,” the company said.

Tiktok’s latest guidelines for the Community also contain new and updated definitions on the company’s policy on hate talk and health error information.

When Tiktok announced the updated rules, TikTok said it would introduce a “warning strike” when a creator violates the platform’s social guidelines for the first time.

“The warning strike does not count on an account’s strike call, but any future violations are coming,” Presser said. “We inform Creators about what rule they have broken and how they can appeal if they believe that a mistake has been made. Zero tolerance policy (for example, incentives for violence) are not eligible for these reminders; accounts will be immediately banned.”