France leads crackdown on #SkinnyTok while Brussels plays catch-up

Euronews

3 days ago

Under pressure from the French government, TikTok has banned the hashtag #SkinnyTok, a controversial trend linked to the glorification of extreme thinness and unhealthy weight-loss advice.
The move comes amid mounting concerns across Europe over the platform's influence on young users and its role in promoting body image disorders.
The French Ministry for Digital Affairs celebrated the removal as a significant step toward protecting minors online.
'This is a first collective victory,' Digital Minister Clara Chappaz wrote on X on Sunday, adding that she wants to ban social media platforms for minors under 15 years of age.
The now-banned hashtag had amassed more than half a million posts, many glamorising extreme thinness, sharing guilt-inducing messages like "you aren't ugly, you are just fat."
The content overwhelmingly featured young women, often filtered to appear thinner, reinforcing toxic body standards for millions of viewers across the world.
However, despite the removal of the hashtag, concerns persist. Typing 'SkinnyTok' into the app now redirects users to wellness advice, but similar harmful content still thrives under altered or misspelled hashtags.
For Charlyne Buiges, a nurse specialising in eating disorders who started the petition that helped push the issue into public view, the ban is a moment of validation: 'It's a great victory, I was very happy,' she said. 'I immediately reinstalled the TikTok application and went to see if it was really real. Once I saw the hashtag was banned, I told myself I didn't do all this for nothing," she told Euronews.
Ella Marouani, a 22-year-old nursing student who has battled an eating disorder that she says was fueled by social media told Euronews she felt frustrated by the lack of action from the platform: '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' she said.
Ella's experience paints a sobering picture of how early - and how easily - such content can shape a young person's self-image.
'I came across a few #SkinnyTok videos in my algorithm and they made me deeply angry,' she said. 'A few years ago, I would have probably believed in these videos so I am deeply angry for the young people who come across this content," she said.
Health professionals have also been sounding the alarm. Lea Tourain, a Paris-based nutritionist, sees firsthand how distorted body ideals impact teenagers.
'I think it's really dangerous, and it scares me because it's becoming more and more fashionable,' she said. 'In my consultations, I have young girls who come with an image of themselves, with a filter, or simply with someone they follow on social media, who advocates extreme thinness and they ask me how to achieve the same body. It's very worrying," she explained in an interview with Euronews.
Despite TikTok's claims that it enforces 'strict rules against body shaming and dangerous behaviour related to weight loss,' many say enforcement is either too weak or too slow.
That's one of the key concerns for French Socialist MP Arthur Delaporte, who leads a parliamentary commission investigating social media's role in spreading harmful content.
Delaporte is calling for a coordinated European response and tougher penalties for platforms that fail to act. 'We need to stop the digital giants from setting up dangerous and flawed algorithms that ultimately aggravate mental disorders,' he said.
'We do need to impose sanctions at European level, sanctions at an international level, fines if need be… at some point we need to bang our fists on the table and consider even banning the platform.'
The European Commission, which launched a formal investigation into TikTok under the Digital Services Act (DSA) in February 2024, remained largely on the sidelines during this latest move.
The absence of the Commission in this decision raised doubts about the EU's role in enforcing its own tech rules.
Meanwhile, a growing number of European countries, including Belgium and Switzerland, also took their steps against the platform, just as France had done, circumventing Brussels.
Belgium's Digital Minister Vanessa Matz had filed a formal complaint against TikTok and referred the issue to the Commission.
In Switzerland, lawmakers are exploring ways to regulate the platform, possibly through age restrictions.
Spain has cancelled a deal to purchase anti-tank missile systems that were to be manufactured in Madrid by a subsidiary of an Israeli company in a bid to move away from Israeli military technology, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.
The decision will affect the license for 168 SPIKE LR2 anti-tank missile systems with an estimated value of €285 million.
The systems would have been developed in Spain by Pap Tecnos, a Madrid-based subsidiary of Israel's Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, local media said.
"The goal is clear...a total disconnection from Israeli technology," government spokesperson Pilar Alegría told reporters, adding the government is studying "the effects of the cancellation."
Israel's Defence Ministry referred questions on the decision back to Rafael, which declined to comment. Pap Tecnos has not issued a comment either.
Spain approved the deal on 3 October 2023 four days before the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
That attack left around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, dead.
Hamas took 251 people as hostages, and is currently still holding 58 in Gaza, of whom fewer than 24 are believed to still be alive.
Spain's leftist government says it stopped exporting arms to Israel as of 2 October that year, but there where reports some shipments slipped through.
Authorities argued at the time that the systems used by the Spanish forces were obsolete and should be replaced for up-to-date versions like those used by allied armies.
Spain formally recognised a Palestinian state in May 2024 in a coordinated effort with Norway and Ireland.
A month later, Spain became the first European country to ask the top United Nations court, the International Court of Justice, permission to join a case mounted by South Africa that accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza. Israel strongly denies the charge.
There has been growing concern in the west about the Israeli military offensive in Gaza which has to date killed 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry whose figures do not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Last week, Israel's Foreign Ministry accused French President Emmanuel Macron of being on a "crusade against the Jewish state," after he urged the international community to harden its stance towards Israel if the humanitarian situation in Gaza doesn't improve.
"There is no humanitarian blockade. This is a blatant lie," the ministry said, defending its control over the flow of aid into the enclave.
"But instead of putting pressure on jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state. No doubt his national holiday will be October 7," the statement said, referring to the 7 October 2023 militant attack on Israel.
During a three-hour televised interview earlier in May, Macron said Europe should consider sanctioning Israel over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are thought to be now facing starvation.
And last month, the UK government said it was suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and had introduced new sanctions on settlements in the West Bank as Westminster ramped up its criticism of the ongoing military operation in Gaza.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK's existing trade agreement with Israel remains in effect but the government couldn't continue discussions with an administration pursuing what he called "egregious" policies in the two territories.
Those remarks followed a joint condemnation he issued on 19 May with Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that marked one of the most significant criticisms by close allies of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the West Bank.