TikTok, the very popular app that will likely “go dark” this weekend after the Supreme Court upheld a law that requires ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell the app by Sunday or otherwise face a ban, has changed the way Americans talk about health, repored The New York Times.
“Anyone that had a camera and a personality could get their message out,” Aric Prather, a sleep psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told the Times.
Dr. Sasha Hamdini, a psychiatrist who posts on TikTok about mental health issues, in an article published in 2023 for Harvard Public Health, touted the app, saying the “true value of TikTok is its immense potential public health impact. Used appropriately, it’s one of the most powerful tools we have for scaling information and fighting misinformation,” she added.
But TikTok’s algorithm has created echo chambers for users, contributing to self-diagnosis. The app has also become a breeding ground for inaccurate health information.
An Amnesty International report from 2023 found that TikTok’s "For You" feed risked pushing children and young people toward harmful mental health content.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to negotiate a solution to keep TikTok around, as President Joe Biden has signaled he won’t enforce the ban.