Dozens of TikTok accounts are using social media photos from real physicians, nurses and dental clinicians to promote a range of supplements and unchecked health claims — with few people policing them, Forbes reported March 4.
Stealing the identity of health professionals to promote supplements is not new, but social media has made it easier to market wild claims to audiences with little consequences.
In most cases, the images are used without the medical worker's knowledge or permission. They tend to showcase images of young female medical workers in scrubs, work badges or stethoscopes and captions about the person being fired from a hospital and sharing "secret" information they were not allowed to before. What follows are photos that mingle generic health tips with pitches for supplements and a link in the bio where it can be bought. As long as the accounts avoid certain language around disease and explicit promises of prevention or cure, they can promote supplements as they wish, the report said.
TikTok has managed to turn viral online products into real-life trends that fuel the supplement industry. The platform has shot several products to fame, including Berberine — which claims to be "nature's Ozempic" —chlorophyll water and greens powders. None of these products have scientific backing for their claims.
Policing the content is a slippery slope.
A TikTok spokesperson told Forbes the company reviews content and accounts and will continue to remove any that violate its policies. TikTok claims to have strict policies for supplements and requires sellers to submit U.S. food labeling documentation prior to listing these products on TikTok Shop. Forbes, meanwhile, used the reporting tool to flag several posts for misinformation and fraud, but within 30 minutes, they came back as "no violation."
The FDA is tasked with ensuring labels on supplements are accurate and truthful, but advertising on social media technically falls under the Federal Trade Commission. However, the agency has struggled to keep pace with the rising number of social media influencers.
As agencies fall behind on policing, the job falls to TikTokers and medical professionals themselves to police and debunk the misinformation. However, legal action is unlikely to be successful for professionals whose identity were hijacked and damages would be modest, if any are won at all, the report said.