Instagram’s Chief recently received a letter from NHS England which read that many pages on their platform are selling a drug which is used to achieve an hour glass figure that has been body typed by many celebrities and influencers.
Apetamin is a drug which is being sold online on various platforms however senior health leaders consider that it can cause more potential harm to its consumers in the promise of giving them an hour glass body figure.
The drug consists of an ingredient which is deemed prescription only antihistamine by the medical world because it can cause various side effects like dizziness, tremors, nausea, blurred visions and liver toxicity and when taken often can be potentially dangerous for consumers.
The letter which is signed by NHS England medical director Professor Stephen Powis, national mental health director Claire Murdoch, and Kitty Wallace of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation was sent to Instagram in regard to acknowledge the company that this drug is being sold on their platform, telling them it is unlicensed and dangerous.
The letter from NHS England further enlightened the company that the drug is specially being targeted towards young women and girls and consuming of which can be very harmful for them and therefore it requested the company to look up into the matter and delete and remove off any pages that are selling this dangerous drug.
According to the letter Apetamin is unauthorized in the UK and should not be sold, supplied or advertised and the drug's unlawful availability was highlighted in a BBC Three documentary last month as well.
Instagram in response to the letter said that they have removed all highlighted accounts which were selling these drugs when it was first talked about in BBC Three and also notified NHS England that buying and selling non-medical or prescription drugs was strictly against their policies.
However, the letter claims "dozens of profiles" selling Apetamin are still online and that when it flagged them up, a customer service message claimed they did not break the rules.
The NHS chiefs are requesting Instagram to update them urgently about what they are doing to remove the pages selling these products and also seek assurances that any "shortcomings" in its community guidelines that allow such content to appear will be tightened.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation on this said that people are running after a certain type of body image and the BDD foundation is becoming overwhelmed because of it. Worshipping one type of body image is wrong because everyone is beautiful and perfect the way they are and though social media social media is not the cause of BDD, it has a huge role to play in exacerbating the symptoms.
Therefore, Instagram and other social media companies should take urgent steps towards banning the sale of Apetamin as well as any other prescribed drug on their platform and also encourage that all body types are perfect because the internet has a lot of influence on how people think.
Read next: Instagram Is Adding Captions To Its Reels and Stories In The Form Of A Dedicated Sticker
Apetamin is a drug which is being sold online on various platforms however senior health leaders consider that it can cause more potential harm to its consumers in the promise of giving them an hour glass body figure.
The drug consists of an ingredient which is deemed prescription only antihistamine by the medical world because it can cause various side effects like dizziness, tremors, nausea, blurred visions and liver toxicity and when taken often can be potentially dangerous for consumers.
The letter which is signed by NHS England medical director Professor Stephen Powis, national mental health director Claire Murdoch, and Kitty Wallace of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation was sent to Instagram in regard to acknowledge the company that this drug is being sold on their platform, telling them it is unlicensed and dangerous.
The letter from NHS England further enlightened the company that the drug is specially being targeted towards young women and girls and consuming of which can be very harmful for them and therefore it requested the company to look up into the matter and delete and remove off any pages that are selling this dangerous drug.
According to the letter Apetamin is unauthorized in the UK and should not be sold, supplied or advertised and the drug's unlawful availability was highlighted in a BBC Three documentary last month as well.
Instagram in response to the letter said that they have removed all highlighted accounts which were selling these drugs when it was first talked about in BBC Three and also notified NHS England that buying and selling non-medical or prescription drugs was strictly against their policies.
However, the letter claims "dozens of profiles" selling Apetamin are still online and that when it flagged them up, a customer service message claimed they did not break the rules.
The NHS chiefs are requesting Instagram to update them urgently about what they are doing to remove the pages selling these products and also seek assurances that any "shortcomings" in its community guidelines that allow such content to appear will be tightened.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation on this said that people are running after a certain type of body image and the BDD foundation is becoming overwhelmed because of it. Worshipping one type of body image is wrong because everyone is beautiful and perfect the way they are and though social media social media is not the cause of BDD, it has a huge role to play in exacerbating the symptoms.
Therefore, Instagram and other social media companies should take urgent steps towards banning the sale of Apetamin as well as any other prescribed drug on their platform and also encourage that all body types are perfect because the internet has a lot of influence on how people think.
Read next: Instagram Is Adding Captions To Its Reels and Stories In The Form Of A Dedicated Sticker
