Tiktok again indicates on misinformation. A Guardian survey reveals that false information is present in more than half of the 100 most popular videos with respect to mental health. These offer advice to help control trauma, anxiety, depression or neurodivergencia.
Among them, 52 videos contained false information, alerted the British newspaper, after sharing this content with psychologists, psychiatrists and university experts. The latter also discovered that many other videos were vague or useless.
Users who seek help face questionable tips, such as eating an orange in the shower to reduce anxiety or methods to cure trauma in an hour.
A risk of trivialization
Some videos also offer general advice based on limited personal experience and anecdotal data, which “may not be universally applicable,” said David Okai, a neuropsychiatrist who has examined the content of anxiety and depression.
Dan Poulter, former Minister of Health and Psychiatrist of the NHS (British Public Health System), deplores that some of the videos about serious mental illnesses “pathologize the experiences and emotions of everyday life, which suggests that they correspond to a diagnosis of serious mental diseases.”
Given this discovery, Tiktok said the videos were eliminated if they discouraged people to consult a doctor or promote dangerous treatments. Users looking for terms related to depression, anxiety, autism and other mental disorders are also redirected to NHS information, the social network said.
“We are actively working with health experts from the World Health and NHS organization to promote reliable information on our platform and eliminate 98% of false harmful information before we are informed,” said a Tiktok spokesman from The Guardian.
The platform has also criticized the methodology of the British newspaper study, indicating that “it presents obvious limits, which oppose” the freedom of expression it offers to users “and suggests that people should not be authorized to share their own stories.”
Source: BFM TV
