“I’m willing to bet you know at least one girl that’s using steroids every single day,” starts a young man in a TikTok video.
He stares into the camera, continuing his big, yet notably false, reveal: “One in three girls these days is taking the birth control pill, and believe it or not, the birth control pill is actually an analog of the bodybuilding steroid nandrolone.”
Another face swiftly crowds the screen. Dressed in a white lab coat, the debunker Mustafa Dhahir, a practicing pharmacist and medical student based in Australia, interrupts the video with his own commentary: “One of the most annoying things when it comes to busting misinformation is that the people who spread the misinformation use hints of truth to spread their lies.”
Mr. Dhahir explains what a steroid is and then goes point by point to illustrate why the original video — which claims oral contraception causes a medley of symptoms, including changes in sexual attraction — is inaccurate. “This guy is simply using scare tactics,” Mr. Dhahir tells the viewer, noting that there are many birth control options with varying sets of side effects.
Mr. Dhahir is part of a growing cohort of scientists, physicians, health care professionals and academics who debunk health misinformation on TikTok by “stitching” videos, which involves clipping existing videos into new ones and then offering one’s own input. While social media platforms including TikTok have developed systems to flag vaccine misinformation, an ocean...
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