THE WASHINGTON POST: Influencers are spreading dangerous misinformation about sunscreen on TikTok

Scepticism of sunscreen, which has long alarmed dermatologists and health care experts, is relatively rare on TikTok.

But a small number of videos pushing misinformation about sunscreen received a disproportionately high share of likes, shares and comments on the platform, suggesting that anti-sunscreen views resonate strongly with some users, according to a new study published Thursday.

“There’s audiences that are very attracted to this information,” said Alessandro Marcon, a researcher at the University of Alberta’s Health Law Institute and an author of the study.

That’s a concern for dermatologists who warn that avoiding sun care increases long-term health risks like skin cancer.

These experts underlined their worry about rising skin cancer rates and growing scepticism of some conventional health advice and pharmaceutical products, such as sunscreen.

Skipping sunscreen, which protects the skin by absorbing or reflecting ultraviolet rays, puts you at a high risk for skin cancer, said Adam Friedman, a professor and chair of dermatology at George Washington University who was not involved in the study.

Alternative proposals that have been proposed on various social media sites such as tanning without protection, or using products like beef tallow instead, are harmful and not grounded in science, he added.

For the latest study, researchers gathered around 1000 TikTok videos from 2024 under the most popular hashtags for discussing sunscreen products and sunscreen use and categorised them between videos that promoted sunscreen, critiqued it or contained both positive and negative discussion of sunscreen.

Around 87 per cent of videos promoted sunscreen use, and 27 per cent emphasised the importance of applying enough sunscreen.

Out of the set of 971 videos, 42 had both promotion and critiques of sunscreen — and just 16 videos solely critiqued sunscreen use.

While the videos all received a similar amount of views on average, those that critiqued sunscreen received significantly more comments, likes and shares, according to the study.

“Misleading and contrarian ideas, for example, that sunscreen is either useless or harmful, incorporates novelty, shock value, and conspiratorial components that trigger emotions and leads to increased viral potential,” the study wrote.

The critical videos included claims that sunscreen was toxic and contained carcinogens, that sun exposure is not dangerous, and that sunscreen prevented the benefits of tanning.

Those claims are not grounded in science, Dr Friedman said.

While sun exposure can help the body produce Vitamin D, foregoing the protection of sunscreen and risking skin cancer is far more dangerous.

“You are purposefully harming yourself,” Dr Friedman said.

TikTok’s community guidelines prohibit health-related misinformation and the platform says it partners with independent fact checkers to identify and remove misinformation, according to the company.

Briony Swire-Thompson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University and director of the university’s Psychology of Misinformation Lab, said it was encouraging that the majority of the videos on TikTok did not contain misinformation and promoted sunscreen.

Dr Swire-Thompson, who was not involved in the study, said the study’s findings align with past research that found users were more likely to engage with misinformation about public health.

She said it was “really unfortunate when you see the kind of ease at which some of these things get engagement.”

“We are being brought into the modern era of innovative sun protection,” Dr Friedman said.

“How do we reach those who actually need to be reached when it comes to this information?”

But she pointed out that the research does not conclude that anyone who commented and shared the videos, or otherwise engaged with them, necessarily believe the misinformation. The study did not analyze the content of the comments on the videos.