Hidden in Plain Sight: Exploring the Intersections of Mental Health, Eating Disorders, and Content Moderation on TikTok

TL;DR

This study examines how TikTok users evade content moderation related to eating disorders, revealing that evasion tactics lead to exposure to more negative emotions and complicate efforts to promote healthy online environments.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of moderation evasion tactics and their emotional impact on TikTok, highlighting challenges for content moderation and mental health support.

Findings

Moderation evaders and mainstream hashtags co-occur, risking exposure to harmful content.

Evaders evoke more negative emotions than mainstream hashtags.

Mainstream hashtags generally promote positive engagement.

Abstract

Social media platforms actively moderate content glorifying harmful behaviors like eating disorders, which include anorexia and bulimia. However, users have adapted to evade moderation by using coded hashtags. Our study investigates the prevalence of moderation evaders on the popular social media platform TikTok and contrasts their use and emotional valence with mainstream hashtags. We notice that moderation evaders and mainstream hashtags appear together, indicating that vulnerable users might inadvertently encounter harmful content even when searching for mainstream terms. Additionally, through an analysis of emotional expressions in video descriptions and comments, we find that mainstream hashtags generally promote positive engagement, while moderation evaders evoke a wider range of emotions, including heightened negativity. These findings provide valuable insights for content creators, platform moderation efforts, and interventions aimed at cultivating a supportive online environment for discussions on mental health and eating disorders.