TikTok, Meta, Snap team up to protect teens (and themselves)

Top social media companies are working together to limit the spread of suicide and self-harm content. Meta, TikTok, and Snap are founding members of Thrive, a program launched by the nonprofit organization Mental Health Coalition (MHC).

Thrive encourages cooperation among its member companies, which are pooling their resources to make the internet safer for underage users. Meta, TikTok, and Snap will share “hashes” that can be used to identify individual pieces of problematic content as they move from platform to platform. TechCrunch notes that the hashes will only apply to graphic videos related to suicide and self-harm, and they won’t include any identifiable information about the uploaders.

“We at the MHC are excited to work with Thrive, a unique collaborative of the most influential social media platforms that have come together to address suicide and self-harm content,” MHC Founder Kenneth Cole said in a statement. “Meta, Snap and TikTok are some of the initial partners to join ‘the exchange’ committing to make an even greater impact and help save lives.”

Meta supplied Thrive with its technical infrastructure, while Thrive director Dan Reidenberg — the Managing Director for the National Council for Suicide Prevention — will oversee operations. The founding companies will alert one another as they become aware of content that violates platform policies.

Despite these cross-platform efforts, the effect of harmful content on youth mental health is still a major issue for big tech firms, parents, and lawmakers. By coming together for Thrive, the founding companies are acknowledging that more work needs to be done while also placating watchdogs. The E.U.’s Digital Services Act grants regulators the power to fine platforms that fall short of child safety standards; TikTok is one company that has been frequently targeted by the Act.

Regulators have their eyes on X and YouTube as well, but those companies aren’t founding members of Thrive. X infamously takes its own approach to problematic content. Elon Musk gutted X’s moderation team shortly after taking control of the company, though moderator numbers have rebounded a bit since then. YouTube offers a litany of features meant to protect the mental health of youth, and it recently added a new tool that lets parents help out, too.

Input from those platforms could bring even more resources to the MHC’s union. Even so, with Meta, TikTok, and Snap at the helm, the coalition is in position to Thrive.