TikTok no longer shows search results for the hashtag #SkinnyTok. Critics who supported this block said some videos with that label were promoting disordered eating and other unhealthy or risky diet behaviors. We've reached out to TikTok for comment on this development.
France's Minister of State for Digital Affairs Clara Chappaz was one of the politicians leading the pushback against this particular hashtag. She has been campaigning against #SkinnyTok with both French and EU regulators since April. “These videos promoting extreme thinness are revolting and absolutely unacceptable,” Chappaz said. “Digital tools are marvellous in terms of progress and freedom, but badly used they can shatter lives … the social networks cannot escape their responsibility.”
A TikTok spokesperson provided Engadget with the following statement: “We regularly review our safety measures to address evolving risks and have blocked search results for #skinnytok since it has become linked to unhealthy weight loss content. We continue to restrict videos from teen accounts and provide health experts and information in TikTok Search.”
The company also notes that when people search for the term now, no results are displayed and users are instead directed to resources. As for when this content started cropping up, Tiktok says that it detected an increase of usage earlier in the year, but things spiked in March in April, at which it started taking more action like the aforementioned search changes and direction to resource content. It also started limiting related search suggestions and made the content ineligible for teen users.
While blocking search results for potentially harmful hashtags is a positive step, it only places hurdles in the path of people who want to seek out similar videos. “Users are savvy,” Cornell University professor Brooke Erin Duffy told The New York Times. “They know how to work these platforms and how to evade their content moderation systems.”
A block on one hashtag is just the latest in TikTok's piecemeal approach toward content that could encourage eating disorders. In 2020 it placed restrictions on ads that might “promote a negative or harmful body image,” such as fasting apps and weight loss supplements. TikTok began a partnership with the National Eating Disorder Association in 2021 to offer more resources for users with eating disorders. Later that year, it also introduced a new approach to the For You page in an effort to reduce the impact of watching too many repeated clips on a negative topic.
Update, June 4, 2025, 2:41PM ET: This story was updated with a statement and additional details from TikTok.
