Influencer who 'likes being skinny' banned by TikTok. 'Weight is a...'

TikTok has banned an influencer for sharing controversial weight loss advice after critics called her content “dangerous” and “harmful.” Liv Schmidt has nearly 700,000 followers on her channel where she talks about the importance of being thin.

Experts and dietitians say that her videos demonstrate an "unhealthy devotion to being thin". They argue that her videos should be removed as she has been "glamourising disordered eating" by telling people that “it is important to stay skinny” –

TikTok took the decision to delete her account after stating that her “disordered eating” posts violated community guidelines.

Schmidt, who lives in New York, has now responded to the controversy and the critics. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, she said, "For me and my personal aesthetic, I like to be skinny and there’s nothing wrong with that."

“Weight is a touchy topic, but that’s what the viewers want.”

She further stressed that she wants to “save America from obesity one person at a time” because of her own personal struggles with feeling confident in her body, as per WSJ. The tagline about obesity was also mentioned in her TikTok bio.

Telling the publication that she was "trying to build a genuine thing,” Schmidt said that she was "confused, upset" and "felt misunderstood" about the decision to remove her account.

People slam Liv Schmidt for promoting 'skinny'

However, several others feel that Schmidt was peddling the wrong notions about food on girls who are too young to decide what is right for them. Experts say that Schmidt’s “what I eat in a day” TikTok videos propagated the use of such foods that were “incredibly harmful”. They say that the videos linked to a curated Amazon storefront containing dietary supplements, ankle weights and protein powders.

A “Skinny Group Community Chat” with a subscription fee of $9.99 per month was also linked to her videos.

Social media users have slammed Schmidt for promoting the idea that being thin is important.

One of the users wrote, "There’s something so deeply sinister about a ‘regular’ influencer posting food like this and pretending like it’s normal, ESPECIALLY because there’s a massive population of girls on TikTok who are too young to realize that eating like this isn’t okay.”