Reading time: 2 minutes – Spotted on The New York Times
«It is not a sin to want to be thin”claimed Liv Schmidt in the biography of her TikTok account, which had accumulated more than 670,000 subscribers. The content shared by the influencer seems to be problematic, however, since the social network has just banned her profile, indique The New York Times.
In recent months, the 22-year-old has gained popularity on social media by posting diet plans to maintain a slim figure. In addition to her “What I eat in a day” videos, she encourages her followers to eat less: “Half the time you’re not really hungry, you’re just thirsty”she explained in one of her TikToks. She also talked about how she felt more comfortable in society and better treated by her peers since losing weight.
These are innocuous little phrases, but they have not gone unnoticed by Internet users, who believe that she shares “pro-ana” content – a popular mentality in the 1990s that encouraged anorexic behavior to achieve the ultra-thinness of models – and represents a threat to the potential “impressionable” subscribers who follow her.
“We have the ability to block content we don’t want to see”
On September 16, the Wall Street Journal publish an article about Liv Schmidt, in which she explains her lifestyle and eating habits. She explains that she limits the calories she eats daily, and takes the opportunity to respond to her detractors: “We all have the ability to watch what we want, and block the content we don’t want to see.”After the publication of the article, the influencer faced a new wave of criticism, before seeing her account banned by TikTok.
While the social network never provides the exact reasons why profiles are deleted, a representative confirmed that Liv Schmidt had “violated community guidelines”One of these guidelines prohibits content that promotes dangerous weight loss behaviors.
A decision far from stopping the influencer, who has already returned to TikTok under another pseudonym. She has also kept her Instagram account, where she has accumulated more than 68,000 subscribers.
Source: www.slate.fr
