Under pressure from the French government, Tiktok banned the hashtag #skinnytok. This is a controversial trend associated with the glory of extreme thinness and unhealthy weight loss advice.
This move comes amid concerns across Europe over the impact of the platform on younger users and its role in promoting physical image disorders.
The French Ministry of Digital has celebrated the removal as an important step to protect minors online.
“This is the first collective victory,” Digital Minister Clara Chappaz wrote on X on Sunday, adding that he would like to ban social media platforms for minors under the age of 15.
At the time, the hashtags collected over 500,000 posts. Many fascinate extreme thinness and share guilt-inducing messages such as “You’re not ugly, you’re just fat.”
The content was characterized by overwhelmingly young women, often targeted, thinned for millions of viewers around the world, reinforcing the standards of toxic bodies.
However, despite the removal of hashtags, concerns persist. Entering “Skinnytok” into the app now causes users to be redirected to wellness advice, but similar harmful content will still thrive under modified hashtag changes or spelling.
In the case of Charlyne Buiges, nurses specializing in eating disorders Petition has begun It helped push the issue into public. Prohibition is the moment of verification. “It’s a huge victory, I was very happy,” she said. “I immediately reinstalled the Tiktok application and checked whether it was really real or not. When I saw the hashtag being banned, I told myself I would do nothing of this,” she told Euronows.
Ella Marani, a 22-year-old nursing student who fought eating disorders fueled by social media, told Euronows she was unhappy with the lack of action from the platform.
Ella’s experiences draw a calm picture – how quickly and easily, how easy it is for such content to shape the self-image of young people.
“I came across some #SkinnyTok videos with the algorithm and they made me deeply angry,” she said. “A few years ago, I probably believed these videos, so I’m deeply angry at the young people who come across this content,” she said.
Medical professionals are also turning alarms. Paris-based nutritionist Lee Tullen looks firsthand how distorted body ideals affect teenagers.
“I think it’s really dangerous and it’s getting more and more fashionable, so it scares me,” she said. “In my consultation, I have a young girl who comes with an image of herself, filters, or just someone I follow on social media, claiming extreme thinness and asking how to achieve the same body. It’s very worrying,” she explained in an interview with Euronev.
Despite Tiktok’s claims that it enforces “strict rules for physical shame and dangerous behavior related to weight loss,” many say enforcement is too weak or too late.
This is one of the key concerns for Arthur Delaport, a French socialist MP who leads a parliamentary committee examining the role of social media in the spread of harmful content.
Delaporte calls for a coordinated European response and harsher penalties for platforms that fail to act. “We need to stop the digital giants from setting up risky and flawed algorithms that will ultimately exacerbate mental disorders,” he said.
“We need to impose sanctions at the European level, sanctions at the international level, and fines where necessary.
European Commission, Formal investigation He joined Tiktok under the Digital Services Act (DSA) of February 2024 and remained primarily on the sidelines during this latest move.
The absence of a committee in this decision raised questions about the EU’s role in implementing its own technical regulations.
Meanwhile, the rise in European countries, including Belgium and Switzerland, has also taken steps against the platform, as France has done, avoided Brussels.
Belgian Digital Minister Vanessa Mads filed a formal complaint against Tiktok and introduced the issue to the committee.
In Switzerland, lawmakers are looking for ways to regulate platforms, perhaps through age restrictions.
