The scale of the promotion of vapes and e-cigarettes online means that new laws being introduced to ban vaping ads on social media may be a “toothless exercise” without additional policy reforms, health experts have said.
Most e-cigarette posts on TikTok and Instagram portray vape use positively and many posts breach the platforms’ content policies, research from Prof Jonine Jancey and her colleagues found.
In response to failures by social media platforms to stop the advertising of vapes, laws taking effect from 1 April will prohibit the publishing of tobacco or e-cigarette advertisements online. Entering into a tobacco or e-cigarette sponsorship online will also be banned in a move targeting industry deals with influencers.
Jancey, who works at Curtin University’s school of population health, and her colleagues examined the type of e-cigarette and vaping content on Instagram and TikTok and assessed it against the social media content policies of the platforms.
Of 264 e-cigarette videos reviewed on TikTok, almost 98% portrayed e-cigarettes positively, they found. A total of 69 posts (26%) clearly violated TikTok’s own content policy.
The researchers also identified 369 vaping-focused accounts on Instagram, which is owned by Meta, by examining all of the accounts followed by a prominent vaping influencer.
They found 100% of the vape content posted by those accounts was positive in sentiment towards vapes. A total of 64 accounts (17%) potentially violated Meta’s policy by attempting to purchase, sell, raffle or gift e-cigarette products.
The researchers then spoke to experts from public health, social media, law and tobacco control and asked them how this e-cigarette content could be better managed. There was consensus among participants that e-cigarette related social media content can be harmful and government action is urgently needed.
The findings were published in three papers across the journals BMC Public Health, Tobacco Induced Diseases, and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The evidence has been used to inform a social media policy brief sent in March to schools, parliamentarians and health promotion organisations.
The brief calls on the federal government to widely publicise the law reforms taking effect from April, and for the Department of Health to be better resourced to monitor platforms and ensure compliance and enforcement of the laws.
“We know from our Instagram and TikTok research that self-regulation by social media platforms doesn’t work,” Jancey said.
“We know the new social media legislation is being introduced, but unless these new regulations are monitored and enforced it will be [a] toothless exercise. Many of the promotion strategies on social media are created to attract new consumers.”
Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
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A TikTok spokesperson said: “Content that depicts or promotes the sale or trade of tobacco, including novel nicotine products, is prohibited by our strict community guidelines” and “the advertisement of vaping products and nicotine pouches is also forbidden on TikTok”.
Jancey and her colleagues have called for an independent complaints body to be established to make it easy for people to report online vaping and e-cigarette content that contravenes the law.
A spokesperson for the federal Department of Health said all complaints and reports of non-compliance will be examined, and the department’s monitoring programs “are both proactive and responsive”.
The therapeutic goods and other legislation amendment (vaping reforms) bill 2024, currently before parliament, would bolster the powers available to the government and the penalties and offences for unlawful advertising of vapes if it passes.
The deputy director of the University of Melbourne’s centre for behaviour change, Associate Prof Michelle Jongenelis, said she would like to see the government’s reforms extend beyond vaping and target all harmful industries.
But in terms of e-cigarettes, she said ensuring social media platforms are aware of the new regulations will be important.
“Enforcement will be key, but it will be tricky because of the number of ads and the use of social influencers,” she said.