An influencer banned from TikTok for sharing controversial weight-loss advice has responded after her content was labelled “dangerous” and “harmful”. Having recently amassed a following of more than 700,000 followers, Liv Schmidt’s videos have been slammed by dieticians and experts who have said she’s demonstrating an “unhealthy devotion to being thin”. Schmidt has been lambasted for glamourising disordered eating and emphasising how important it is to “stay skinny”.
Critics even asked the social media platform to remove the 22-year-old’s polarising and potentially harmful content altogether. TikTok has since closed her account down, arguing that she violated community guidelines with her disordered eating posts. Despite her widespread condemnation, Schmidt was defiant and quick to defend her controversial health advice.
“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.” Schmidt had previously said that her mission was to “save America” from obesity “one person at a time”.
“I’m trying to build a genuine thing,” she said, adding she was “confused and upset” by the decision to have her banned and said she “felt misunderstood”. Critics have further labelled her content as “sickening”. “There’s not a single day where I don’t thank God that I didn’t dow.