Influencer banned from TikTok over dangerous weight loss advice

An influencer who was banned from TikTok for sharing controversial weight loss advice has clapped back after her content was labeled “dangerous” and “harmful.”Liv Schmidt recently amassed a following of almost 700,000 people with her videos that experts and dietitians have described as demonstrating an “unhealthy devotion to being thin.”Critics argued Schmidt was glamorizing disordered eating by emphasizing “it is important to stay skinny” – and called for the 22-year-old corporate worker’s content to be removed.TikTok has since taken action, shutting down her account and stating she violated community guidelines with her “disordered eating” posts.While many applauded the move, Schmidt – who lives in New York – has been quick to defend her controversial advice after garnering widespread outrage.“For me and my personal aesthetic, I like to be skinny and there’s nothing wrong with that,” she claimed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.“Weight is a touchy topic, but that’s what the viewers want.”She also claimed her desire to “save America from obesity one person at a time” – as indicated in her now-deleted TikTok bio, according to the WSJ – originates from her own personal struggles with feeling confident in her body.“I’m trying to build a genuine thing,” she told the publication, which reported she was “confused and upset” by the decision and said she “felt misunderstood.”However her critics argued Schmidt’s “what I eat in a day” TikTok videos – which linked to a curated Amazon storefront stocked with dietary supplements, ankle weights and protein powders, and a “Skinny Group Community Chat”, which costs $9.99 per month in subscription fees – were “incredibly harmful” with some labeling the account “sickening.”“There’s not a single day where I don’t thank God that I didn’t download TikTok until I was in my 20s,” one person shared on Reddit.“I want better for ...