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I've probably been the top sunscreen mythbuster online for the last decade, so I have thoughts! It's super cool that sunscreen misinfo is being formally studied! Big props to the authors for recognising this problem. But there's misinfo in the paper, and IMO the main claims aren't well-supported…

CLAIM 1 "Overall, the dominant narrative on TikTok promotes sunscreen use" "Our findings indicate that [sunscreen misinformation] constitutes a small portion of the most viewed videos" They estimate only 1.5% of highly viewed sunscreen TikToks state it causes harm.

I don't think 1.5% passes a sniff test for what's seen on TikTok. Quick example: CBC News showed this TikTok screenshot when they covered this study… 3 out of the 4 top videos that came up when searching "sunscreen" suggest chemical sunscreens are toxic - pretty far from 1.5%.

I think the inaccurate estimate comes from issues with the methodology: ISSUE 1 Videos were found using sunscreen-related hashtags. Hashtags have declined in use since ~2022, especially on TikTok - the algo is very good, so hashtags probably don't reflect what people are seeing.

ISSUE 2 This is more subtle - I'd guess only TikTok creators who do sponsorships are really aware of it: The view count used in the study included boosted views. "Boosting" is when a brand pays $$$ for a video to get more views from a target audience (location, age, gender, interests etc).

Brands often boost videos they paid creators to make (ads), plus their own posts. I didn't realise this was an issue until I saw the SI… Of the top 10 videos in their dataset: 6 = clearly disclosed ads 2 = posts from brands 1 = likely undisclosed ad Only 1 was likely organic (regular) content.

"Boosted" ad views are not the same as regular views. * People swipe away clearly labelled ads quickly without registering them. * Boosted ads aren't matched to users via the platform's algorithm, so they're inherently less likely to engage the user.

e.g. Here's some of my own data Average watch time: Boosted sponsored post = 1.4 & 3.6 sec Unboosted sponsored post = 8.2 & 11.3 sec Unboosted organic content = 14.9 to 30.2 sec Views per like/comment indicate views needed to "earn" an interaction - a measure of engagement.

My normal sponsored post view count at the time was ~23.5K. This means roughly 99.7% of the views on my boosted videos were "inorganic" - paid to be shown to more people, and clearly labelled that way!