Cooling the Conversation: Discourse About Menthol and Flavored Tobacco Restrictions on TikTok

TikTok promotes methods that circumvent commerce laws and advances disinformation about tobacco policies. Currently, flavor-related policies are contentious tobacco control issues. This paper examines flavor bans content on TikTok.

TikTok videos (n = 1,139) and metadata posted between September 2018 and September 2023 were scraped using a TikTok application programming interface (API) and popular hashtags related to flavor ban content (i.e., #menthol [135.3 million]), #mentholban [11.7 million], #nonmenthol [25K]), #flavorban [3.9 million]. Data were classified for relevance to menthol bans and emergent codes by two trained coders.

Flavor-ban-related videos (n = 609) displayed cigarettes (51.6%), e-cigarettes (23.9%), and nicotine pouches (2.0%). Overall, 9.5% of the videos were filmed in retail settings such as vape shops (6.4%) and gas stations (2.6%). Policy circumvention methods appeared in videos promoting flavor capsule injectors (13.3%), discussing non-menthol cigarettes (4.1%), and displaying other circumvention methods (e.g., flavor cards; 12.6%). Videos that depicted methods of circumventing tobacco control policies received 66.6% of all views and 31.4% of all likes. Influencers discussed menthol bans in 226 (37%) videos; 58.4% were against the ban, 9.3% in support, and 32.3% were neutral. Among influencer videos, 17.7% focused on racial implications, with 55% opposing the ban and 32.5% supported it. These discussions received 11.2% of all views and 25.3% of all likes.

Although videos aimed at policy discussions and political mobilization are noteworthy, those promoting circumvention strategies were viewed more often. TikTok's role for underregulated marketing and sales of tobacco products and accessories is a pressing tobacco regulatory issue.