Una estrella de YouTube, de 27 años, hostigada por sus millones de seguidores que se preocupan por su salud. Una creadora de TikTok, de 19 años, que hace publicaciones sobre la delgadez. Las comunidades de adolescentes que proliferan en Internet y usan apodos astutos y censuran sus conversaciones para evitar ser detectadas.
All these situations represent an almost irresoluble problem for social media companies that are being pressed to do something with respect to the material that appears in their services and that, in the opinion of many people, is harmful, especially for adolescents.
These concerns were revealed in recent weeks in a couple of audiences before a Senate Subcommittee.The first, with a Facebook executive who defended his company and the second, with a former Facebook employee turned into a complainant who argued that the products of his former employer could cause some young people to suffer from eating disorders.
In part, the audiences were summoned by an article by The Wall Street Journal that detailed how the internal Facebook investigations showed that Instagram, a Facebook company, can worsen the problems that some young people have with their body image.
It is planned that on Tuesday some executives from YouTube, Tiktok and Snapchat testify to a Senate subcommittee on the effects that their products have on childhood and youth.They are expected to face questions about how they moderate the content that can encourage unbalanced food and how their algorithms could be promoting such content.
"The exploitation by the large technological companies of these powerful algorithms and design characteristics is reckless and unraveled, and must change," said Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator by Connecticut and president of the subcommittee."They take advantage of children's insecurities, including eating disorders, simply to earn more money".
But what can be done exactly with that content - and why people believe it first - can challenge easy answers.If the creators say that they do not intend to glamor to eating disorders, should their statements be taken to the letter?Or should companies listen to users who complain about them?
“Social networks in general do not cause eating disorder.However, they can contribute to an eating disorder, ”said Chelsea Kronengold, spokeswoman for the National Association of Eating Disorders.“There are certain publications and certain content that can generate problems in a person, but in others not.From the perspective of social networks, how does that gray area of the contents moderate? ”.
The association advises social media companies to remove the content that explicitly promotes disorders and offering help to users who require it.
But young people have formed online communities in which they talk about eating disorders and exchange advice on the best ways to lose weight and look thin.With ingenious labels and abbreviations so that the filters do not detect them, share publications of demacrated models on Twitter as inspiration, create YouTube videos in which they compile low -calorie diets and form chat groups in Discord and Snapchat to share how much they weigh and encourageTo others to help.
The influential personalities have been accused in fashion, beauty and exercise fields of promoting eating disorders.Experts claim that particularly the field of fitness can serve as a conduit to attract young people to extreme communities of eating disorders online.
YouTube, Snapchat, Tiktok and Twitter have policies that prohibit content that foster eating disorders.But companies should improve their algorithms to locate those contents, said Kronengold.
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"It becomes a problem, especially when people see content that can affect or that they don't want to see," he added.
Like many other popular YouTube creators, Eugenia Cooney, 27, makes videos in which she shares her favorite fashion and makeup articles with her more than two million followers.But for years, its spectators do not focus on the themes of Cooney's videos.Rather, they flood the comments section with concerns about your health.
Although, in an interview with other YouTube creators in 2019, Cooney admitted that fighting an eating disorder rarely mentions the concerns of his audience.While some spectators go to their profile on the social networks of YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and the live transmission service Twitch to beg her to seek treatment, others have accused her of using her platform to promote eating disorders among young people.
They say that their videos are examples of what in English they call "body checking", which is the usual behavior of inspecting the appearance of the body itself, which is associated with eating disorders.More than 53.000 people signed a request in January asking social networks companies to withdraw their contents.
"I feel rather that we all have the right to make videos and publish photos of ourselves," Cooney said in an August video."With me, people will always try to make that bad".The content creator did not respond to the requests for comments that The New York Times made her.YouTube said Cooney's work did not violate his rules.
"We strive to achieve a balance between the elimination of harmful videos about eating disorders and the granting of a space for creators and spectators to talk about their personal experiences, seek help and sensitize others," said Elena Hernández, spokesman for Youtube."We have reduced the dissemination of doubtful content on eating disorders that touch the violation limit of our policies but do not cross the line".
YouTube does not prevent users from looking for content on eating disorders, but includes a telephone line for assistance to people with eating disorders at the top of their search results when some common terms related to the subject are identified.
The company includes one of Cooney's fashion videos among the first search results of "Thinspo", a common term that refers to the "inspiration of thinness", along with video compilations that originally appeared on Tiktok.
YouTube allows Cooney to win money with their videos.The announcements of healthy food companies such as Sweetgreen, Imperfect Foods and Hellofresh often appear in their content, although Cooney speaks mainly of makeup and fashion instead of diets or food.
Mishel Levina, a 19 -year -old university student with 21.000 followers on Tiktok, invites your audience to "block if you are sensitive".In his videos he presumes his waist and abdomen, reproduces fragments of songs about thinness and includes texts on how to lose weight.
Levina acknowledged that some of her behaviors were unhealthy, but said she was just sharing her life and was not urging other people to deprive themselves of food.
"I am accused of promoting bad eating habits, I am not promoting them," he said in an interview.“I'm just joking with them, everything is a joke.So are social networks.I don't force you to see it.I am sharing information.It is your decision to see her and pay attention to her or simply ignore her ".
Last year, Tiktok began to take strict measures against the contents that explicitly foster eating disorders and block some labels that promote unbalanced food.But it has allowed the creators to continue sharing videos in which they talk about recovery or subtle jokes about eating disorders are made.
Despite the efforts to hide the harmful contents, there are still some videos that promote eating disorders.Some tags related to the subject have more than 70 million visits.But the search for phrases such as "Anorexia" makes the application offer a telephone number of the National Association of Eating Disorders instead of any video.
Tiktok says he also tries to differentiate the videos of people who share their personal experiences from the most harmful contents that promote unhealthy behaviors.
"Our goal is to promote a solidarity environment for people who share their recovery trip in Tiktok and, at the same time, safeguard our community by eliminating the contents that normalize or glorify eating disorders," said Tara Wadhwa, director ofAmerican Tiktok policy.
However, many popular Tiktok trends that do not promote eating disorders, anyway, emphasize thin bodies, tacitly advocating thinness as an ideal.
"It is ironic, but my first trend is something that makes me feel terrible," said McKenzie Ellis, 26, whose music appeared in a recent "Hip Walking" trend (walking with the hips) in which the creators filmed firstplans of your waist when walking.
On Twitter, creators often share tips on impact diets and encourage unbalanced food, and thus, some accumulate tens of thousands of followers.Twitter algorithms suggest by default accounts and related topics so that users follow them, based on the accounts they see.When a user sees accounts that promote eating disorders, Twitter recommends issues such as "Fashion Models", "Fitnes Applications and Tracking", "Conscious Food" and "Exercise Videos".
Twitter stated that their policies prohibit the contents that promote eating disorders or that provide instructions or strategies to maintain them, and that the company depends primarily on the use of users denouncing the offending contents.A spokesman said that his topics recommendations differ according to the account.
"While we eliminate the content that violates our policies on suicide and self -harm, we also allow people to share their struggles or seek help," said the representative.
In Snapchat, users often form private chat groups dedicated to encouraging to practice some eating disorder.Some chats focus on providing negative feedback, that is, intimidating participants for not meeting their diet goals.Others provide positive comments.
After a consultation of The New York Times, Snapchat said it would prohibit the use of terms related to these chats in user names, the names of group chats and searches.The company has already blocked a series of common terms associated with eating disorders and offers resource suggestions, according to a spokesman.
Levina, who has her Tiktok account, said she did not think it necessary to moderate its content to avoid influencing young people to initiate unhealthy behaviors.Instead, he affirms that adolescents are older enough as "to understand the information given to them and decide what to do".
But Khadijah Booth Watkins, associated director of the Clay Center for young and healthy minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, said young people are especially impressionable, so content creators must take into account that they could be influencing adolescents to takeDangerous decisions for your health.
"Being aware."Reliable and valid information about weight loss, especially on social networks, should only be performed by qualified nutritionists and authorization to exercise".
If you or a loved one is battling with an eating disorder, contact the telephone assistance line of the National Association of Eating Disorders to receive support, resources and treatment options in the 800-931-2237.There are additional resources in the NationalEatingDisorders.org.
Sheera Frenkel collaborated with this report.
Kate Conger is a technology reporter in San Francisco and covers the economy of informal labor and social networks.@kateconger
Kellen Browning is a technology reporter in the Bay area and covers the video game industry and technological news in general.He graduated from Pomona College.@kellen_browning
Erin Woo is a fellow of the Technology Section.He graduated at Stanford University.@erinkwoo