“The platform is huge, but there is almost no scientific research on it,” says Marco Zenone, a health policy researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
IT SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED IF THERE ARE SIMILAR PROBLEMS
Zenone believes researchers need to start to understand whether TikTok has similar issues with other platforms, such as undermining the mental health of some young girls. The platform also allegedly does nothing to combat conspiracy theories.
That’s why, earlier this month, a research agenda proposal was published outlining areas that experts need to explore. Issues such as the way alcohol use and electronic cigarettes are presented on the platform, as well as the medical advice given by users, will be subject to strict scrutiny. In addition, serious studies will be done on videos sharing personal, sensitive stories and whether the platform has similar effects on young people’s mental health as Instagram. According to some researchers, “considering how much access TikTok has, it was too late for this audit”.
RESEARCH CANNOT BEAT TIKTOK’S SPEED
The Verge directly asked the researchers questions. For example, “Why don’t we know much about TikTok’s health effects?” When asked, “I think the platform has come to the fore very quickly and research has not caught up. We know that TikTok currently has 1 billion users, and we see that a lot of the research that has emerged is still on Facebook, Instagram and related platforms, but it has not changed yet in TikTok. This worries us a bit as public health researchers because we’ve seen in the past what happens when left unchecked.” expressions were used.