TikTok rolls out ban on 'misgendering' and content promoting eating disorders

TikTok is rolling out a ban on controversial content such as videos which promote disordered eating and dangerous viral "challenges".

The social media giant updated its community guidelines and is now explicitly banning certain content if it breaches its policy, including anti-LGBTIQ videos and any clips which may glorify eating disorders.

Among the updated policies — which TikTok says will "support the wellbeing of our community" — is also a ban on misgendering users and general misogyny.

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"While we already remove content that promotes eating disorders, we'll start to also remove the promotion of disordered eating," the app said in an update to its community guidelines.

"We're making this change, in consultation with eating disorders experts, researchers, and physicians, as we understand that people can struggle with unhealthy eating patterns and behaviour without having an eating disorder diagnosis."

The statement continued: "Our aim is to acknowledge more symptoms, such as overexercise or short-term fasting, that are frequently under-recognised signs of a potential problem. This is an incredibly nuanced area that's difficult to consistently get right, and we're working to train our teams to remain alert to a broader scope of content."

Melissa Wilton, Head of Communications and Engagement at the Butterfly Foundation said TikTok's move is "encouraging" but warns a lot more needs to be done to prevent content which encourages disordered eating.

"It's encouraging to see TikTok, arguably the most influential social media platform right now, taking proactive steps to ban unsafe and triggering content," Wilton said in a statement.

"It's a step in the right direction, helping to make the experience on the platform a positive one. A lot more work needs to be done in this space and Butterfly continues to collaborate with social media organisations, including TikTok, to ensure policies are developed to keep people safe online."

 The platform is prohibiting a number of "hateful" ideologies and anti-LGBTIQ content, including "deadnaming" — which is the practice of referring to a trans person by their old name.

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TikTok also enforced a ban on any "content that supports or promotes conversion therapy programs".

The guidelines said the company will also be "strengthening our dangerous acts and challenges policy" which will be a stricter approach on preventing harmful content such as suicide hoaxes or dangerous online challenges.

"Though these ideologies have long been prohibited on TikTok, we've heard from creators and civil society organizations that it's important to be explicit in our Community Guidelines," Cormac Keenan, TikTok's head of trust and safety, said in a statement. 

"On top of this, we hope our recent feature enabling people to add their pronouns will encourage respectful and inclusive dialogue on our platform."

TikTok's policy update follows mounting pressure from advocacy groups such as GLAD and UltraViolet, which labelled the social media landscape as "effectively unsafe for LGBTQ users".