Analyzing Social Media Policies on Muscle-Building Drugs and Dietary Supplements

Background and Purpose: Social media use is ubiquitous among young people and has been shown to influence mental health, body image, and disordered eating behaviors. However, much of the prior research has focused on thinness-oriented effects of social media use, as well as social media company policies related to the content and advertisement of thinness-oriented material. What remains less well understood is how social media may influence muscle-building behaviors. In particular, it remains unclear whether social media companies have specific content and advertisement polices related to muscle-building drugs (e.g., anabolic-androgenic steroids) and dietary supplements (e.g., whey protein). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the polices of eight popular social media companies to describe their content and advertising policies related to muscle-building drugs and dietary supplements.

Methods: Content and advertising policies for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Reddit were descriptively analyzed in November 2022 to determine whether content and advertising related to legal (e.g., whey protein) and illegal (e.g., anabolic-androgenic steroids) muscle-building drugs and dietary supplements were prohibited (i.e., the policy explicitly prohibited advertising and content related to muscle-building drugs and dietary supplements), restricted (i.e., the policies required advertisers or users to receive prior approval, or are required to comply with relevant rules and regulations of governments and/or regulatory entities), or there was no related policy (i.e., there were no explicit policies related to muscle-building drugs and dietary supplements).

Results: All eight social media platforms had explicit policies prohibiting content and advertising of illicit drugs and substances (e.g., anabolic-androgenic steroids); however, Reddit, Instagram and YouTube were the only platforms that specifically referenced anabolic steroids in their advertising policies. Regarding legal muscle-building dietary supplements, none of the eight social media companies had specific policy regarding user content. Advertising policies regarding legal muscle-building dietary supplements varied for each social media platform, including TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Reddit restricting advertising of legal muscle-building dietary supplements, while Instagram and Twitch had no specific advertising policy for legal muscle-building dietary supplements. Twitter and Facebook prohibited the advertising of legal muscle-building dietary supplements to minors (< 18 years).

Conclusions and Implications: Findings from this study underscore the need for stronger social media content and advertising policies related to legal muscle-building dietary supplements. Additionally, while content and advertising of illegal drugs, such as muscle-building drugs, were prohibited, only three of the platforms specifically referenced a muscle-building product (i.e., anabolic-androgenic steroids). This finding emphasizes the need for greater specificity to the social media policies. Social workers should not rely on social media companies to effectively regulate the content and advertising young people view on social media related to muscle-building drugs and dietary supplements, and instead provide education on these drugs and supplements to clients accordingly.