SkinnyTok: Why TikTok's incentives to be thin won't disappear by removing a hashtag

Clara Chappaz welcomed this on Monday, June 2. "After a fierce battle," TikTok "finally decided last night [Sunday] to remove the hashtag #SkinnyTok from its search engine," said the Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs. "It's a small step. It's not enough, but it shows that we won't give up," she added, following the government's summons to the heads of the platforms Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube and X regarding content moderation.

Driven since March by a handful of American influencers, #SkinnyTok was one of the latest trends to promote thinness ( skinny means thin, in English). Behind common sense advice (drink water, walk more) and glamorous aesthetics (pilates, green tea), the majority of videos distil guilt-inducing and dangerous advice, such as "Food is not a reward. You are not a dog" , "I stop eating after a few bites" or "I drink water when I'm hungry" .

You have 82.74% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.