A 22-year-old popular TikToker was recently banned from the platform for encouraging viewers to engage in hazardous dieting practices. Before her account was shut down, Liv Schmidt had over 670,000 followers. She allegedly posted videos that some of her critics accused of promoting eating disorders and reviving the 2000s toxic diet culture.
Her content consisted typically of ‘What I Eat in a Day’, ‘Skinny Girl Essentials’, and tricks as to how to consume fewer calories.
The ban came shortly after The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) ran a profile on Schmidt. It prompted TikTok to disable her account due to a violation of the community guidelines of the platform for sharing anorexic content and encouraging unsafe weight loss practices.
A TikTok representative told the WSJ that Schmidt’s account was deleted over alleged violations of the community standards but the company did not provide more details.
According to the New York Times, before these incidents, critics argued that Schmidt’s videos were dangerous to subscribers and they resembled another phenomenon from the early 2000s called ‘pro-ana,’ short for pro-anorexia. At that time, there were scenarios encouraging anorexic behaviour due to examples of many models in the 1990s with very thin figures.
The morning after her account was taken down, Schmidt reportedly could not understand what happened and felt offended. She said that she did not get any notification from the app explaining how some of her videos violated the app’s policies on body positivity.
She told WSJ, “I’m trying to build a genuine thing.”
Nevertheless, Schmidt was back on TikTok shortly with a new account under the name @notlivsschmidt, which also primarily publishes material of the same genre. It includes workout videos and dietary tips that many still consider controversial.
She has complained about how she felt hurt by the ban, claiming she was only presenting the audience content they fancied.
The TikToker told WSJ, “We all have the option to follow and block any content we want.”
Schmidt further told WSJ that her videos target women in white-collar jobs who spend most of their day at a desk. She found it easier to reduce 300 calories through food than to burn the same amount through exercise, particularly for those with busy careers and limited time.
The publication also describes her as one who has been accused of ‘rage-baiting,’ meaning she does things that will annoy viewers to gain more viewership and followership. In her posts, she sometimes applies pig, cow and whale emojis and makes jokes about thinness.
In the interview with WSJ, she said that her TikTok account was restricted to audiences of people 18 and above to target working women.
But Maria Rago, a clinical psychologist and the president of the national eating disorder nonprofit ANAD opined the same to the New York Times and said that a content creator such as Schmidt could be in a desirable place to shape young grown-ups, who spent part of their developmental years in COVID-19 lockdown, and therefore such scrutiny is warranted.
However, irrespective of the decision made by TikTok, Schmidt has continued with social media presence on other social media platforms. On Instagram, she has more than 68,000 followers. There she sells a monthly subscription of $9.99 where she sends motivational tips and there is a chat for everyone to share tips on motivation.
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