TikTok has banned the account of an influencer who promoted flavoured nicotine pouches in viral videos, but other accounts showcasing the controversial products remain on the platform.
Guardian Australia revealed in early February that nicotine pouches were being promoted by the Australian bodybuilder Stefan Kohut.
TikTok said Kohut’s account had been banned from the platform as it was in violation of its community guidelines.
“Content that depicts or promotes the sale or trade of tobacco, including novel nicotine products, is prohibited by our strict Community Guidelines,” a spokesperson said. “In addition, the advertisement of vaping products is also forbidden on TikTok.”
The spokesperson said the platform actively removed content in breach of the guidelines, with more than 741,000 videos removed in Australia during the most recent quarter, about 95% of which were taken down before they were reported.
Kohut, who has started a new account with a double “t” on the end of his handle, vowed to “build back the community” in a video posted on 12 February. He has not posted any videos promoting pouches on the new account.
Nicotine pouches are sachets of nicotine which are tucked under the lip and resemble snus, a smokeless oral tobacco product popular in Scandinavia.
Oral tobacco has been banned in Australia since 1991 but nicotine pouches are promoted as tobacco-free, containing only nicotine extracted from tobacco, or synthetic nicotine. They require a prescription to be legally supplied in Australia.
A week after the Guardian revealed the promotion of nicotine pouches on TikTok, Australia’s drug regulator updated its guidance on the product, warning: “As there are no nicotine pouches on the [Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods], it is unlawful to advertise nicotine pouches, including when advertising these products for the purposes of smoking or vaping cessation. This includes online advertising.
“In addition, a nicotine pouch cannot be publicly advertised because the supply of a nicotine pouch for a purpose other than smoking cessation requires a prescription. The advertisement of prescription medicines is prohibited.”
Guardian Australia has since identified more individual TikTok accounts that portray the banned products in a positive light, which is legal as long as they are not offered for sale.
One fitness influencer this month posted a video of himself taking “the heaviest snus you can get in Melbourne”, a post that has been seen by 70,800 people.
Another fitness influencer, who had posted 39 videos since April 2023 about his use of nicotine pouches as a vaping cessation device, including naming a website which sent him products, took his videos down after Guardian Australia’s inquiries.
The influencer told the Guardian: “We are in a changing regulatory landscape, and with each change in regulations, I have changed my approach to how I discuss these topics … Since the regulations were updated in February 2024, I have not once mentioned where I have purchased my nicotine pouches from.
“I have had numerous Australian based businesses reach out to me, asking for a collaboration, sponsorship, or offer money in exchange for promotional content.”
Several Australian businesses selling the product continue to have links to their websites on their TikTok pages.
TikTok banned the account of one vendor, Aus Nicopods, after Guardian Australia inquired about it.
Prof Becky Freeman, a tobacco control expert at the University of Sydney, said stronger laws were needed to ban harmful advertising, particularly when targeted at young people, because “allowing these platforms to self-police has failed”.
“And then, governments need to actually enforce these laws,” Freeman said. “For tobacco, vaping and other recreational nicotine products, the law is crystal clear in Australia – these products cannot be promoted on social platforms, it is illegal.”
Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, who leads the Behavioral Data Science lab at the University of Technology Sydney, said controls were looser for organic content from user accounts including influencers, as opposed to more traditional “ad-based content”. As a result, he said, the regulation of influencers where any relationship with a brand is unclear becomes the “one million dollar question”.
Dr James Kite, a senior lecturer within the University of Sydney’s school of public health and Charles Perkins Centre, said young people were often exposed to content they did not necessarily recognise as advertising, including influencers’ posts.
As a result, he said, it was very common for young people to be exposed to products on social media that were harmful to their health “whether that’s nicotine pouches or gambling or alcohol”.
“[The platforms’] policies around regulation are always going to lag what we want them to be, because it’s not in their interests to close down or crack down on advertising.”
