According to whistleblowers, users found that social media giant TikTok was allegedly receiving millions of dollars in exchange for diet culture ads on its platform.
The video-sharing platform has reportedly received $4.3 million from so-called wellness company Kilo Group, reports Media Matters.
Ads created by the Lithuanian conglomerate appeared to promote unattainable weight loss goals, primarily through its two largest subsidiaries, Colonbloom and Beyond Body. These companies allegedly promised consumers quick weight loss solutions such as flat bellies and full body transformations.
According to Pathmatics data, TikTok spent $4.3 million between November 1, 2022 and January 7, 2023, reports Media Matters.
In 2020, TikTok restricted ad campaigns about diet and weight loss, stating that content cannot “promise that the product alone will lead to weight loss or weight gain without dieting or exercising” and exaggerate the performance of the product. We could not guarantee or guarantee any particular result. The company also banned content that exploited users’ “anxieties about conforming to certain beauty ideals and standards.”
TikTok’s safety policy manager, Tara Wadhwa, said in a 2020 statement, “We are introducing a new advertising policy that bans ads for fasting apps and weight loss supplements and tightens restrictions on ads that promote harmful or negative body images. are being introduced.
“This kind of advertising does not support the positive, inclusive and safe experience we strive for on TikTok,” she added.
The Washington Post reached out to TikTok and Kilo Group for comment.
Body positivity advocate and TikToker’s Nikki Garza told The Post that he doesn’t believe social media platforms can be “a safe haven from diet culture.”
“These platforms are here for the money,” said the Atlanta creator bluntly.
“I have little or no faith in sticking to any kind of platform. [of safe space] They are committed to protecting creators from all sorts of sinister things like diet culture,” the 28-year-old added, and it’s consumers who control what they see on their feeds.
“Unfortunately, at the end of the day, I don’t think anyone has our best interests at heart.”
ColonBroom, a powder containing psyllium husks, touts its product as the all-in-all and the ultimate in bloating tummy troubles. and boasts the powder as “a new and effective way to relieve constipation, lose weight and cleanse the body.”
However, while psyllium husk powder is great for the digestive tract, it does not play a significant role in weight loss. It turns out that weight and body mass index alone do not significantly decrease.
Meanwhile, Beyond Body, a personalized diet book, uses step-by-step instructions to promise weight loss. is full of negative body image terms and ideologies.
In addition to branded blogs demonstrating dieters’ weight loss “failures” and offering seemingly ultimate solutions, their advertising is nothing more than that.
According to a screenshot of their TikTok ad by Media Matters, people in the clip complain about not having a “flat” stomach, while others promise full-body transformation in just 28 days. .
The diet product isn’t the first of its kind, and it won’t be the last as far as the $72.6 billion weight loss market is concerned, but it’s eerily reminiscent of the days of flat tammy tea. A detox touted by Kim Kardashian and her sisters Her tea and appetite-suppressing lollipops have become popular over the past decade as her users faced an onslaught of her celebrity-backed wellness craze on social media. increased.
After experts accused Buzz of being a bull, Instagram targeted fake ads with revised policies. According to the app’s advertising guidelines, weight-loss content is not available to users under the age of 18, and its filter feature “Grammers block diet talk.”
The barrage of TikTok diet ads came shortly after a University of Vermont study claimed the platform “glorified” weight loss.
The study’s lead, Dr. Lizzie Pope, an associate professor in the university’s Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, told the Post in November that the amount of content promoting weight loss and lean ideals is “pervasive.” rice field. She added that the content analyzed made weight loss look “easy” and promised a quick way to lose weight.
“There were a lot of subliminal messages about what the body and food should look like to match the thin ideal,” she said. There were so many videos talking about trying to achieve a figure of.”
A search for “thinspo” on TikTok directs users to eating disorder resources, while using the hashtag “weight loss” directs users to pages overwhelmed with clips promoting the front and back of their bodies. Move. This hashtag has 74.5 billion views due to the prevalence of body check videos on the platform.
The Media Matters report is the latest in a slew of criticisms of the social media giant.
The improved app guidelines in 2020 come months after The Intercept reported that social media platforms were censoring users using features they deemed “ugly.”
At the time, internal guidelines recommended that video auditors flag clips featuring TikTokers who appear to be “chubby” or “obese” or have “too many wrinkles” or “facial deformities”. was
A content creator who claimed to be overweight claimed his videos were wrongfully removed by the app’s moderators. The user said the platform cited community guideline violations as the reason the clip was flagged, even though there were no visible violations.
TikTokers suspected that their large bodies meant they had more skin “surface area” and that artificial intelligence might be detecting them despite the lack of nudity or sexual content. Their smaller counterparts, on the other hand, were able to happily flaunt their slender bodies in bikinis without issue, sparking outrage among the body-positive community.
“Plus-size people are bigger, so they show more skin because they’re bigger,” Garza told the Post in 2020.
Despite TikTok amending its guidelines to limit content about diet culture, the Better Business Bureau warns consumers to beware of fake diets online, many of which are “too much to be true.” is also good,” he said.
“Body wraps, topical creams, nutritional supplements, pills, powders, skin patches, and even earrings are advertised to quickly ‘melt,’ ‘wash out,’ ‘burn,’ or ‘dissolve’ unwanted fat.” ,” the warning page read, and the ad that added it is usually used before or after the snap to convince people it worked.
“The sad truth is the advertising is misleading and the product will not melt fat or give you a six pack.” .”
Media Matters’ complaint against TikTok comes as the platform faces scrutiny amid security concerns.
The app’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, is set to testify before Congress later this year as government officials introduce legislation to ban the app. The news comes as multiple universities have banned the use of the platform on campus.
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