How TikTok profits off dangerous health trends
(www.vox.com)
from jeffw@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 05 Oct 2023 19:45
https://lemmy.world/post/6354075
from jeffw@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 05 Oct 2023 19:45
https://lemmy.world/post/6354075
threaded - newest
Take this article with a grain of salt, since that woman clearly just disproved the whole thing
Her logic is airtight.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For the past few weeks, TikTok creator Busy Belle has been telling her nearly 30,000 followers that castor oil, if applied to the belly button, can fight bacterial infections and dissolve tumors.
Although castor oil has been sold (with little evidence) as a cure-all for ages, it’s recently become trendy, and its sales are getting a boost from influencers and stores claiming that it can relieve a wide range of ailments.
Creators shilling parasite cleanses, detox drinks, miracle cures, and promoting oils and tinctures with overbroad health claims have all been pushed onto the For You Pages of TikTok users in recent weeks.
It’s designed to help the company make money off the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt phenomenon, where viral attention drives viewers to buy everything from vegetable choppers to beauty products to portable carpet steamers.
A recent Washington Post investigation found that American Beverage, a lobbying group for the soft drink industry, had paid 10 registered dietitians to promote the benefits of artificial sweeteners on social media in response to the World Health Organization’s warning that aspartame might cause cancer.
While steroids and borax “detox” mixes aren’t necessarily showing up in the Shop tab, some dubious wellness trends are finding success there by offering products that have some legitimate uses, just perhaps not those being promoted by those getting paid to sell them.
The original article contains 1,661 words, the summary contains 221 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I’m sorry to say this, but people falling into these scams from influencers/social networks is pure darwinism.
They would also fall for door to door salesmen, some things don’t change
As a father of teenagers using TikTok I can tell that you’d be surprised how hard it is to constantly keep everyone vigilant and critical thinking.
I’m a father as well. And I agree, what you mention it’s a hard work. But it’s also my job and my duty, so no complaints.
I used to think the same but the people that are being scammed are actually people who are usually very desperate and being taken advantage of. People with cancers, tumors, sick children, etc that are looking for anything to help them and then these scammers take advantage of their fear and desperation to scam them and harm them.
Naw. It’s predatory bullshit. People deserve to live even if they’re gullible or whatever else. Not everybody gets to grow up with good parenting, schooling, DNA, etc.
“Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”
Every time a gullible idiot falls into a trap that enriches a manipulator, society suffers. Every time someone spends money on snake oil instead of on necessities or goods that bolster the local economy, the economy suffers. Every time someone falls down the rabbit hole away from the mainstream, we lose a potential ally and friend. Every loss is a loss, and even if you take morality and ethics out of it, it still makes sense to protect the vulnerable - even if only for our own selfish interests.
I don’t disagree. I think that as a society we should definitely go after these scammers, shitty influencers and criminal social networks. On the other hand, every single person should take responsibility of their acts and try to be as cautious/skeptical as possible by default when dealing with unsolicited (or, even worse, almost forced) health/ monetary advices.
I really hope the European Union starts to fine social media platforms that allow snake oil salesmen.
The problem with that approach alone is that large-scale social media companies will just absorb the fine as an operating cost. Fines and gaol time need to be levied against the people creating the content as well to try to stop the problem at its source. If a snake oil salesperson wants to push their bullshit but are afraid not only of their posts being taken down but fines and gaol time themselves, I venture we’d see a significant amount less of these people.
In my country they punish tabloids by forcing them to place on the front page either an apology or a correction if they shared some fake news, or private pictures.
We could imagine something similar for social medias, with ads replaced by message informing they shared fake news, for some days.
It will hit them harder than a fine.
I doubt they would consider 10-30% of their gross revenue as a fine a “operating cost”.
A 14 year old died in Ireland by taking part in some aerosol spray challenge. An absolute pity, kids do stupid shit all the time, we shouldn’t be enabling the proliferation of the stupid trends.