TikTok bans #SkinnyTok after French pressure amid rising alarm on harmful weight-loss content

Under pressure from the French government, TikTok has banned the hashtag #SkinnyTok, which is linked to a controversial trend accused of glorifying extreme thinness and promoting harmful weight-loss content

Wednesday’s decision comes amid growing concern across Europe about the platform’s influence on young users and its role in fueling body image issues.

In a post on X on Sunday, French Digital Affairs Minister Clara Chappaz called the move “a first collective victory,” and reiterated her push to ban social media access for minors under the age of 15.

Before its removal, the hashtag had been used in over half a million posts, many of which glorified extreme thinness and included guilt-driven messages such as "you aren't ugly, you are just fat."

Much of the content targets young women and perpetuates harmful beauty standards to a global audience.

The hashtag now redirects users to wellness resources; however harmful content continues to circulate under alternate variations, raising questions about the effectiveness of such measures.

‘Vicious cycle’

According to France's Euronews, the European Commission, which began a formal probe into TikTok in February 2024 under the Digital Services Act (DSA), has remained noticeably absent from this latest development.

Its lack of involvement has sparked questions about the EU’s ability — and willingness —to enforce its own regulations on major tech platforms, the report said.

For Charlyne Buigues, a French nurse specialising in eating disorders, social media serves as a gateway to these problems, which are "normalised" online.

She condemned videos showing young girls with anorexia exposing their malnourished bodies -- or others with bulimia demonstrating their "purges".

"Taking laxatives or vomiting are presented as a perfectly legitimate way to lose weight, when actually they increase the risk of cardiac arrest," Buigues said.

Eating disorders can damage the heart, cause infertility and other health problems, and have been linked to suicidal behaviour. Anorexia has the highest rate of death of any psychiatric disease, research has found.

Eating disorders are also the second leading cause of premature death among 15- to 24-year-olds in France, according to the country's health insurance agency. Social media creates a "vicious cycle," French dietitian and nutritionist Carole Copti said.

‘Social media weakens already vulnerable people’

"People suffering from eating disorders often have low self-esteem. But by exposing their thinness from having anorexia on social media, they gain followers, views, likes... and this will perpetuate their problems and prolong their denial," she added.

This can especially be the case when the content earns money. Buigues spoke of a young woman who regularly records herself throwing up live on TikTok and who had "explained that she was paid by the platform and uses that money to buy groceries".

"We no longer treat an eating disorder without also addressing social media use," French dietitian and nutritionist Carole Copti said.

"It has become a trigger, definitely an accelerator and an obstacle to recovery," she added. Social media "is not the cause but the straw that may break the camel's back," said Nathalie Godart, a psychiatrist for children and adolescents at the Student Health Foundation of France.

By promoting thinness, strictly controlled diets and relentless exercise, social media weakens already vulnerable people and "amplifies the threat" to their health, she noted.