France Appeals to the European Commission Against Skinnytok Trend on TikTok

France’s Digital Affairs Minister, Clara Sapaud, announced today, Good Friday (18.04.25), that she has taken the issue of the Skinnytok trend to the European Commission and the French audiovisual regulatory authority, Arcom. The Skinnytok trend promotes extreme thinness on social media. ‘Skinnytok, a trend promoting extreme thinness on social media. Unacceptable,’ Sapaud wrote in a LinkedIn post confirming her appeal to the European Commission and Arcom. She emphasized that protecting minors online is one of her top priorities and vowed not to let platforms evade responsibility. Arcom stated it has already addressed the issue due to potential public health risks and aims to gather data proving this risk in France while staying informed about TikTok’s measures against the trend. As of now, TikTok has not responded. The hashtag ‘skinny’ was linked to over 500,000 posts by midday in France. These videos, mostly featuring young women, offer weight-loss advice. TikTok has placed a warning banner above related posts redirecting users to resources on eating disorders. In early March, French lawmakers approved the creation of an investigative committee on TikTok’s psychological impact on children and teenagers. On Instagram, owned by Meta, searching for ‘skinny’ redirects users directly to a help page, which can be bypassed to access the posts.