Aside from the annoying new name that will never catch on, Twitter has seen some cataclysmic changes since turning into X in 2022. From its premium model that allows scammers to purchase blue checkmarks to its new blocking policy that completely defeats the feature’s purpose, it’s no wonder brand equity has dropped to record lows and users have left the platform in droves. One of the most persistent and alarming developments affecting those who are still on the platform is the increase in inflammatory and harmful content including racist hate speech, misinformation, and now, even graphic content related to eating disorders.

Welcome to eating disorder Twitter (colloquially known as ED Twitter or ‘edtwt’). It’s a community which has been on X since the platform’s inception, but since Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover many users have noticed an uptick in eating disorder-related content on their feeds. “My timeline is full of tweets from edtwt when I’ve never interacted with them,” one Reddit post from May 2024 reads. “I don’t want to see any of that. I keep blocking accounts but it doesn't do anything. What else can I do? I silenced the word ‘edtwt’ but obviously that's not enough.”

The platform is flooded with ‘thinspiration’ (or ‘thinspo’) content which promotes extreme thinness, ‘progress’ threads detailing users’ attempts to reach alarming, unhealthy ‘goal weights’, and extreme, dangerous diet challenges. Many groups created using X’s ‘Communities’ feature also openly share content that promotes ­eating disorders, with outlets including The Observer and NBC News reporting on the uptick in harmful posts earlier this year.

Eating disorder-focused communities have been itinerant since the internet’s inception, starting out first on message boards before taking root in early social media platforms like MySpace and Tumblr. These dark corners of the internet were once difficult to find, only surfacing in the depths of Google search results or if you made a concerted effort to seek them out. But now, thanks to Musk bringing in changes that make users ­see more posts from accounts they do not follow, this content is pushed to unassuming X users through the For You tab and Communities feature. Stumbling across troubling posts can be disconcerting at best. But for those already struggling to recover, graphic eating disorder content can be enough to trigger a relapse.

There are actually a lot of people on ED Twitter who are concerned for those reaching very dangerous sizes. They’ll reach out and check up on you and even try to get you help

These consequences are enough to make us question why these spaces exist in the first place. But while it may be hard to believe, ED Twitter and all its predecessors weren’t created with ill intent. “For someone with an eating disorder, it can be incredibly isolating, as those who have not experienced one struggle to comprehend the relentless, obsessive thoughts about food and body image,” explained Rachel Goldberg, a psychotherapist and eating disorder specialist. Many online eating disorder-focused communities, Goldberg explains, were actually created for users to find community and access peer-to-peer support during the recovery process.

University student Anaya stumbled upon ED Twitter after years of battling with “a desire for validation and a pure hatred for my body.” It was this community, she says, that gave her the comfort and attention she needed. “There are actually a lot of people on ED Twitter who are concerned for those reaching very dangerous sizes. They’ll reach out and check up on you and even try to get you help. Who does that in real life?”

But, of course, there are more harmful corners of these communities, where thinspo and ‘mean inspiration’ or ‘meanspo’ (content which is deliberately cruel about other users’ bodies) often proliferates. Users’ anonymity can embolden them to express harsh opinions, often without the need for accountability. A quick scan through ED Twitter communities or hashtags reveals a vitriolic atmosphere, a disturbing display of anger and cruelty that could only be the manifestation of immense emotional suffering. “I often got ‘fatspo’ content on my Explore feed, where people would post images of larger bodies and make fun of them, as well as ‘bonespo’, which praised people so thin due to their disorders that they looked like they were on the verge of death,” Tawny, a former member of ED Twitter, tells Dazed.

It’s easy to assume that Musk’s propensity to rage bait is behind the proliferation of such content. But Dr Ysabel Gerrard, a senior lecturer in digital communication at the University of Sheffield, also points out the brain drain after Musk’s acquisition is a crucial factor. Within the first two months of the company alone, Musk has overseen firings or departures of roughly 5,000 of Twitter’s 7,500 employees, a whopping 80 per cent decrease in headcount. Some of the key figures cut from the staff include members of the trust and safety team handling global content moderation, hate speech, and harassment – indicative of the CEO’s desire to “bring back free speech”.

A person posting this kind of alarming content is clearly very vulnerable. What could be the effects of cutting off their support network or removing that person’s account on their mental health?

“These were people in the policy teams, who had worked on the more technical elements for years and years. You build up so much deep knowledge of a platform that you simply can’t replace when you hire someone else,” she told Dazed. “As X works with fewer and then newer staff, it’s almost like the platform is being built from scratch.”

X was not the first platform to grapple with these issues. In 2021, Pinterest banned all weight loss language and symbols and Instagram began blurring sensitive images. While Tumblr was once a hotbed of ‘pro-ana’ content, today their robust Support team deals with eating disorder blogs and content on a case-to-case basis rather than wholesale suspension based on specific tags or text. This way, the Support team explains, people struggling with these behaviours “can find solace, community, dialogue, understanding, and hope.” And while these efforts from social media platforms haven’t succeeded in eradicating the movement altogether, it’s definitely an admirable stride in the right direction.

But X has failed to borrow a page from their playbook. In 2021 in partnership with the National Eating Disorders Association, Instagram and TikTok also started directing users to help resources when searching for terms associated with eating disorders – but X is yet to follow suit. Since mass layoffs to their moderation team, X has largely haphazardly passed down the work to the Community Notes feature instead. While the tool has been successful in some instances at combating misinformation, the sensitive nature of eating disorder communities makes it difficult to outsource moderation work to fallible, fickle-minded users.

Gerrard explains that moderators often face a “conundrum” when presented with content relating to eating disorders. “A person posting this kind of alarming content is clearly very vulnerable. What could be the effects of cutting off their support network or removing that person’s account on their mental health?” she explains. “Even if you can all agree that something shouldn’t be there, handling content and accounts a certain way is, quite frankly, a life-or-death situation.”

As X works with fewer and then newer staff, it’s almost like the platform is being built from scratch

At present, no satisfactory solution is in place. Earlier this year, X announced plans to build a 100-member content moderation centre in Austin, the company’s head of business operations. But there’s still no word on when it’s set to open and what other areas of concern they plan on paying attention to besides child sexual exploitation. (X also failed to respond to Dazed’s request for comment.)

And so, the cycle continues. Regardless of whether users signed up to see it or have mentally prepared themselves for the exposure, ED Twitter is, for now, here to stay. Gerrard says that the most realistic standard to strive toward is “strength in moderation, rather than perfection, which will be impossible. Not even 100 experts in a single room can ever achieve consensus.”

Efforts, therefore, must be centred on making sensitive content harder to find. “For someone already vulnerable to an eating disorder, further exposure to these communities could exacerbate their symptoms or accelerate the onset,” Goldberg says.

Tawny left ED Twitter in 2023, yet sometimes considers going back to the way she was. “I don’t look up triggering things anymore to combat this. But unfortunately, it’s not even a little bit challenging to find these posts, even if I work very hard to report the content or click the ‘Not Interested’ button,” she says. “Just one stray post on the feed could harm someone much more vulnerable than me, particularly children who praise and even glamorise these disorders.”

While from the outside it’s easy to say that those who want to kickstart their recovery should simply unfollow, mute, or block accounts that promote disordered thinking, Goldberg stresses that “being within the community still keeps their focus on the eating disorder as part of their identity, making it harder to break free.”

Having left ED Twitter last year, Anaya understands the recent pushback against the space. It’s become commonplace for mainstream accounts to talk down to some of her former peers. But it’s worth remembering that a little kindness goes a long way. “Behind these accounts are people, mostly teenagers! I was 13 when I first joined the space,” she says. “Can you imagine how many of them are just vulnerable and in need of protection?”