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INTRODUCTION: Mounting evidence suggests that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are extensively promoted and marketed using social media, including through user-generated content and social media influencers. This study explores how e-cigarettes are being promoted on Instagram, using a case-study approach, and the extent to which Meta's Restricted Goods and Services Policy (Meta's policy) is being applied and enforced. METHODS: We identified the accounts followed by an Australian Instagram influencer who primarily posts e-cigarette-related content. The main foci of these 855 accounts were coded and 369 vaping-focused accounts were identified. These vaping-focused accounts were then further coded by two trained coders. RESULTS: All (n=369; 100.0%) of the vape content posted by these accounts was positive in sentiment. One-third of the vape accounts (n=127; 34.4%) had a shared focus, indicating that vape content may permeate into other online communities through shared interests. A total of 64 accounts (17.3%) potentially violated Meta's policy by attempting to purchase, sell, raffle or gift e-cigarette products. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that pro-vaping information is available and accessible on Instagram. Much of the content identified in this study promoted the purchase or gifting of e-cigarette products and potentially violates Meta's policy. Greater regulation and/or stronger enforcement of e-cigarette content on social media platforms such as Instagram is necessary to prevent the ongoing promotion of these harmful products.
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E-cigarettes are promoted extensively on TikTok and other social media platforms. Platform policies to restrict e-cigarette promotion seem insufficient and are poorly enforced. This paper aims to understand how e-cigarettes are being promoted on TikTok and provide insights into the effectiveness of current TikTok policies. Seven popular hashtag-based keywords were used to identify TikTok accounts and associated videos related to e-cigarettes. Posts were independently coded by two trained coders. Collectively, the 264 videos received 2,470,373 views, 166,462 likes and 3426 comments. The overwhelming majority of videos (97.7%) portrayed e-cigarettes positively, and these posts received 98.7% of the total views and 98.2% of the total likes. A total of 69 posts (26.1%) clearly violated TikTok's own content policy. The findings of the current study suggest that a variety of predominantly pro-vaping content is available on TikTok. Current policies and moderation processes appear to be insufficient in restricting the spread of pro-e-cigarette content on TikTok, putting predominantly young users at potential risk of e-cigarette use.
Assuntos
Sistemas Eletrônicos de Liberação de Nicotina , Mídias Sociais , Humanos , Emoções , PolíticasRESUMO
Hydrologic model intercomparison studies help to evaluate the agility of models to simulate variables such as streamflow, evaporation, and soil moisture. This study is the third in a sequence of the Great Lakes Runoff Intercomparison Projects. The densely populated Lake Erie watershed studied here is an important international lake that has experienced recent flooding and shoreline erosion alongside excessive nutrient loads that have contributed to lake eutrophication. Understanding the sources and pathways of flows is critical to solve the complex issues facing this watershed. Seventeen hydrologic and land-surface models of different complexity are set up over this domain using the same meteorological forcings, and their simulated streamflows at 46 calibration and seven independent validation stations are compared. Results show that: (1) the good performance of Machine Learning models during calibration decreases significantly in validation due to the limited amount of training data; (2) models calibrated at individual stations perform equally well in validation; and (3) most distributed models calibrated over the entire domain have problems in simulating urban areas but outperform the other models in validation.
