From Hashtags to Harm: Social Media’s Dangerous Influence on Eating Disorders

Posted: June 5, 2025

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It started with a single click.

At just eleven years old, Alexis Spence downloaded Instagram after classmates mocked her for being the only one without it. She was too young—two years shy of the minimum age requirement—but found step-by-step guides from other users showing how to bypass parental controls. Alexis even disguised the app as a calculator to avoid detection.

What followed was a descent into a digital abyss. Instagram’s algorithm, as detailed in a 2023 study by the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital, bombarded her with images of emaciated models and links to dangerous dieting websites that glorified anorexia, negative body image, and self-harm.

Within months, Alexis was scribbling notes to herself with words like “stupid,” “ugly,” “fat,” and “kill yourself,” spiraling into depression and suicidal thoughts. At twelve, she saved pictures of skeletal models for “motivation” to starve herself. By thirteen, she was hospitalized.

The STRIPED study exposes a chilling reality: social media algorithms—specifically engineered to maximize engagement—target vulnerable youth with content that exploits their insecurities and drives them toward disordered eating, anxiety, depression, and self-harm.

As the report warns: “Mental and physical health injuries to children and adolescents caused by harmful algorithm feeds on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms are far-reaching and must be confronted as a public health crisis.”

The story of Alexis is not an anomaly. It’s a wake-up call. Social media companies rake in billions from advertising to children—like Alexis—yet remain insulated from meaningful accountability.

The “Corpse Bride Diet”

In December 2021, an investigation published inThe Wall Street Journal uncovered how TikTok’s algorithms flood young users with disturbing weight-loss content—videos promoting drastic calorie restriction, including tips on eating less than 300 calories a day, and even glamorizing dangerous concepts like the “corpse bride diet,” featuring emaciated bodies with protruding bones.

After creating fictitious accounts registered as 13-year-olds, WSJ investigators found that TikTok pushed tens of thousands of weight-loss videos to teens within just weeks of joining.

Research shows this issue isn’t confined to TikTok—similar content spreads on other social media platforms that millions of young Americans use daily. Experts warn that these algorithms are fueling a surge in mental health problems among teens, including eating disorders, body image issues, and even suicidality. Addressing this crisis requires urgent policy action to hold these platforms accountable.

Triggering a Surge in Eating Disorders

Professionals treating eating disorders in young people are increasingly alarmed by how platforms like TikTok and Instagram serve as both a trigger and an obstacle to recovery. “We no longer treat an eating disorder without also addressing social media use,” explained Carole Copti, a French dietitian and nutritionist, in a recent interview with AFP.

Copti described social media as “a trigger, definitely an accelerator, and an obstacle to recovery,” highlighting the platform’s role in normalizing extreme thinness, strict dietary regimens, and relentless exercise.

The statistics are sobering. Research cited by AFP shows that the percentage of people worldwide who have experienced an eating disorder in their lifetime has more than doubled—from 3.5% in 2000 to 7.8% in 2018—tracking closely with the meteoric rise of social media.

Young women and girls are especially vulnerable, but the rates among young men are also climbing, the AFP article stated.

A Vicious Cycle of Likes and Self-Doubt

Experts stress that social media is not the root cause of eating disorders—these illnesses are deeply complex and stem from a combination of psychological, genetic, environmental, and social factors. However, platforms like TikTok and Instagram can act as the proverbial “straw that breaks the camel’s back,” according to child and adolescent psychiatrist Nathalie Godart’s quote in the AFP report.

By promoting thinness and amplifying the allure of highly controlled diets and punishing workout routines, social media “weakens already vulnerable people,” Copti explained.

As recently reported in Euronews, hashtags like #SkinnyTok—recently banned in France after public outcry—became havens for dangerous content, encouraging young users to drastically reduce their food intake or engage in harmful behaviors like purging, all in pursuit of the perfect body.

French nurse Charlyne Buigues described to AFP how videos on TikTok show young girls exposing emaciated bodies or demonstrating purging techniques, which normalizes these harmful behaviors. “Taking laxatives or vomiting are presented as a perfectly legitimate way to lose weight,” Buigues warned, “when actually they increase the risk of cardiac arrest.”

Tragically, anorexia has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness and is the second leading cause of premature death among 15- to 24-year-olds in France, according to the AFP report.

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#SkinnyTok: A Hashtag Banned, but the Problem Persists

In response to mounting concerns, France recently forced TikTok to ban the #SkinnyTok hashtag. The French Ministry for Digital Affairs hailed the removal as a significant step toward protecting minors online. According to EuroNews, Digital Minister Clara Chappaz called the ban “a first collective victory” and signaled her intention to push for an outright ban of social media platforms for minors under 15.

Before its removal, #SkinnyTok had amassed over half a million posts glamorizing extreme thinness and promoting guilt-inducing messages like “you aren’t ugly, you are just fat,” the news agency reported. These videos overwhelmingly featured young women, often filtered to appear even thinner, reinforcing dangerous and unrealistic body standards.

However, even after the hashtag was banned, similar content continues to thrive under misspelled or alternate hashtags, the EuroNews article stated. This workaround reveals a persistent challenge: social media platforms are slow to enforce their own rules or remove harmful content.

Ella Marouani, a 22-year-old nursing student who battled an eating disorder, expressed her frustration: “I made several reports to TikTok about videos that were problematic and each time I was told that the rules of the community had not been violated.” For young people like Ella, these videos can deeply influence self-image and perpetuate harmful eating behaviors.

The Role of Influencers and Misinformation

Health professionals face an uphill battle against the tidal wave of misinformation shared by influencers. As Copti explained, consultations often feel like “facing a trial,” with patients questioning legitimate medical advice after being bombarded by fake nutritional information online. “No, it is not possible to have a healthy diet eating only 1,000 calories,” she emphasized, pointing out that many patients are completely indoctrinated by social media content.

Nathalie Godart warned about “pseudo-coaches” who share absurd and often illegal nutrition advice. “These influencers carry far more weight than institutions,” she lamented. “We’re constantly struggling to get simple messages across about nutrition.” The challenge is compounded by the financial incentives some influencers receive: Buigues described a young woman who regularly recorded herself vomiting on TikTok, earning money from views and using that income to buy groceries.

A Legal Perspective: Holding Platforms Accountable

The harm caused by social media platforms has not gone unnoticed in the legal sphere. According to the Levin Papantonio law firm, social media addiction lawsuits are emerging across the United States aimed at holding platforms accountable for their role in perpetuating mental health problems, including eating disorders.

These cases argue that social media companies intentionally designed addictive features, prioritized engagement over user well-being, and failed to remove harmful content.

This legal push is rooted in the notion that platforms should be held to a higher standard of care, especially when their algorithms knowingly serve harmful content to vulnerable users.

Attorney Emmie Paulos Takes Aim at Social Media’s Harm to Youth

Emmie Paulos, an attorney at Levin Papantonio, has focused her practice on representing children and young adults grappling with the devastating consequences of social media addiction. These young people have suffered severe mental and physical illnesses, including suicide, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and body dysmorphia leading to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

“As these and other studies show, social media companies have created a youth mental health crisis, the effects of which will reverberate throughout society,” Paulos said in a recent LP NEWS article. Paulos serves on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee for the Social Media Addiction multidistrict litigation, underscoring her commitment to holding tech giants accountable.

“Companies like Meta, Instagram, Snap, and TikTok design their products to be addictive to children,” Paulos added. “These companies must pay for the damage they’ve done—and continue doing—and they must stop targeting our youth in the name of profit.”

A Call for Collective Action

The influence of social media on eating disorders cannot be overstated. As the experts cited by AFP and Euronews make clear, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are amplifiers of harmful content, compounding preexisting vulnerabilities among young people. France’s ban on #SkinnyTok represents an important step, but enforcement gaps remain and similar content continues to surface under different names.

Experts, health professionals, and lawmakers agree: protecting young people requires a multifaceted approach. This includes stronger regulations, more effective content moderation, and comprehensive education campaigns that teach young people to critically evaluate what they see online. At the same time, legal action—like the lawsuits highlighted by Levin Papantonio—may become a crucial tool in holding platforms accountable for their role in exacerbating the eating disorder crisis.

As Copti aptly put it, “Social media has become a trigger, definitely an accelerator and an obstacle to recovery.” The time has come to treat the digital landscape not as a neutral platform, but as a powerful force that shapes—and too often, endangers—the mental health of a generation.

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