Most sunscreen content on TikTok is accurate, but it’s the misinformation that goes viral
TikTok videos promoting misinformation about sunscreen made up a sliver of the most popular posts, but they got the most engagement, the study found. Photo by Chona Kasinger / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
NBC News
Sunscreen videos are all over TikTok — but the ones that go the most viral are the ones that are packed with misinformation, a study published last week in the journal PLOS Digital Health found.
Researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada analyzed TikTok videos with the highest views across the five most popular sunscreen-related hashtags. Although the vast majority — 87% of the nearly 1,000 videos — promoted sunscreen use, the videos with the highest levels of engagement were the ones that contained misinformation.
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