“The truth is that they are being flooded with content that gives them an extremely distorted view of themselves, their bodies, their mental health, and how they compare to other people,” he added.Īhmed said his organisation’s research suggested that changing a user’s name from “Sarah” to “Sarah Lose Weight” on TikTok could result in its algorithm serving 12 times more self-harm content. He said he found the most dangerous aspect to be the sheer prevalence of such content on social media platforms.
“There is self-harm content, there is nonsensical content about cures for mental health ,” said Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which produced a report last December that suggested TikTok’s algorithm was pushing harmful content to some users within minutes of their signing up.