Communities that promote dangerous habits like eating disorders are now on the rise. They make use of easily accessible social media apps like X to get the message across to target victims like Minors. Shockingly, X is not doing enough to curb the issue.
The platform is adding these types of alarming content as recommendations and the most susceptible users to fall into the trap of the dangerous rabbit hole are youngsters, the NBC News study adds.
The posts glorify looking thin, skipping meals, vomiting food out, starving yourself, and being underweight or malnourished. So many users say it’s amazing how X finds this behavior okay and is glorifying it.
We’ve seen several studies in the past speak about how dangerous these types of content can be and how social media is responsible for the protection of minors. Lawsuits filed against the likes of Instagram and Facebook have similarly brought the matter to light by some advocates.
Now, X must wake up before it’s too late, researchers claim. On average, thousands of posts are published each day where eating disorders are recommended. A lot of the users identify themselves as being teenagers or young females with ages being as young as 13.
In the past, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram were the common means of getting such posts published. The same goes for social media giant TikTok. While we agree they still are in existence there, the problem is more worrisome for X.
Last month, X suspended a major group for the behavior. They were called out for violating rules against self-harm. Soon after that, similar members migrated to different groups on the same app and it was not until NBC News reached out to them again that the matter was brought to the spotlight of X.
What is interesting is how X says it inhibits such content and does not encourage any form of self-harm. By this study, the opposite seems to be true, and X’s struggles with content moderation are on display.
NBC News reported identifying seven more communities featuring close to 78000 members who promoted eating disorders. But as per experts, it’s not only social media that should be blamed. Online content in general can make this a popular fad. Now the question lies on moderators and why they aren’t doing enough to stop it from migrating to their apps.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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