March 26, 2025

45 Shocker: Mental Health Information On TikTok Is Wildly Inaccurate (and Might Make You Feel Worse)

35 minutes

A peer reviewed study from the University of British Columbia analyzed the most popular ADHD-related videos on TikTok and found that very few of them contain information that aligns with medical diagnostics. Even more interesting, people who consume this kind of content perceive the diagnosis to be far more widespread - and symptoms far more intense - than in reality.

Social media is warping our sense of reality and self?! Inconceivable!

Plus: New bi-partisan legislation aims to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1996 law shields websites from litigation if their users upload harmful content. This protection is integral to how the modern Web functions, and erasing it could lead to over-moderation and fear-based censorship.

While harmful user content is always a concern, the true problem with social media is not that the content exists, but its weaponization by tech companies in the name of profit. In this case, Congress is fixing the wrong problem, and the consequences could damage online speech for years to come.

A double-edged hashtag: Evaluation of #ADHD-related TikTok content and its associations with perceptions of ADHD: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0319335&_bhlid=eba84bf6525fc0863f3276ea4a45eb0891dac351

TikTok is full of ADHD advice — just don't trust it for a diagnosis: https://www.npr.org/2025/03/24/nx-s1-5336303/adhd-symptoms-adult-tiktok

Lawmakers are trying to repeal Section 230 again: https://www.theverge.com/news/634189/section-230-repeal-graham-durbin

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