Promotion of E-Cigarettes on TikTok and Regulatory Considerations

Jonine Jancey; Tama Leaver; Katharina Wolf; Becky Freeman; Kevin Chai; Stella Bialous; Marilyn Bromberg; Phoebe Adams; Meghan Mcleod; Renee N Carey; Kahlia McCausland

doi:10.3390/ijerph20105761

Promotion of E-Cigarettes on TikTok and Regulatory Considerations

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 May 9;20(10):5761. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20105761.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in Public Health, School of Population Health, Curtin University, Kent Street, Perth, WA 6102, Australia.
² Internet Studies, School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Curtin University, Kent Street, Perth, WA 6102, Australia.
³ School of Marketing, Curtin University, Kent Street, Perth, WA 6102, Australia.
⁴ School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁵ School of Population Health, Curtin University, Kent Street, Perth, WA 6102, Australia.
⁶ School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
⁷ UWA Law School, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.

Abstract

E-cigarettes are promoted extensively on TikTok and other social media platforms. Platform policies to restrict e-cigarette promotion seem insufficient and are poorly enforced. This paper aims to understand how e-cigarettes are being promoted on TikTok and provide insights into the effectiveness of current TikTok policies. Seven popular hashtag-based keywords were used to identify TikTok accounts and associated videos related to e-cigarettes. Posts were independently coded by two trained coders. Collectively, the 264 videos received 2,470,373 views, 166,462 likes and 3426 comments. The overwhelming majority of videos (97.7%) portrayed e-cigarettes positively, and these posts received 98.7% of the total views and 98.2% of the total likes. A total of 69 posts (26.1%) clearly violated TikTok's own content policy. The findings of the current study suggest that a variety of predominantly pro-vaping content is available on TikTok. Current policies and moderation processes appear to be insufficient in restricting the spread of pro-e-cigarette content on TikTok, putting predominantly young users at potential risk of e-cigarette use.

Keywords: TikTok; e-cigarettes; public health; social media; vaping; young adults.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems*
Emotions
Humans
Policy
Social Media*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation, Healthway (grant number 32089).