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But teens have created online communities where they discuss eating disorders and exchange tips for the best ways to lose weight and look thin. Using creative hashtags and acronyms to break through the filters, they share topics of emaciated models on Twitter for inspiration, create YouTube videos compiling low-calorie diets, and group on Discord and Snapchat to share how much they weigh and encourage others to fast. They create conversations.
Influencers in the fashion, beauty and wellness fields have all been accused of promoting eating disorders. Experts say fitness influencers in particular can often act as a funnel to attract teens to online binge eating disorder communities.
YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and Twitter have policies that prohibit content that promotes eating disorders. Kronengold said companies need to improve their algorithms that can reveal such content.
“It becomes a problem especially when people who might be harmed by this content or don’t want to see it come across this content,” he said.
Like many other popular YouTube creators, 27-year-old Eugenia Cooney makes videos sharing her favorite fashion and makeup products with over two million followers. But for years, viewers did not focus on the topics of Ms. Cooney’s videos. Instead, they fill their comments with concerns about his health.
Despite talking about her struggle with an eating disorder in interviews with other YouTubers in 2019, Ms. Cooney rarely addresses her viewers’ concerns. While some viewers flocked to his social media profiles on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and streaming service Twitch to seek treatment, others accused him of using his platform to promote eating disorders to young people.
They say their videos are examples of “body control,” a habit of reviewing the appearance of one’s body, often associated with eating disorders. In January, more than 53,000 people signed a petition asking social media companies to remove their content.
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