Peptides are spreading on social media. Here's how platforms can better protect public health

by Timothy Piatkowski, Cheneal Puljević, Luke Cox, Samuel Cornell, The Conversation

edited by Swati Mestri, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

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Scroll through social media these days and you'll likely come across someone injecting themselves with a clear liquid, raving about how it's changed their body for the better, improved their recovery or maybe their skin.

That magic substance is often (allegedly) a peptide, a short chain of amino acids—the same building blocks that make up proteins—that can be used to send specific instructions to cells in the body.

Some peptides, such as semaglutide (Ozempic), are legitimate prescription medicines. Many that are sold and promoted online are not—and can have serious health consequences. Just this week, Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration revealed that a person who used an unapproved peptide suffered a potentially fatal torn esophagus due to uncontrolled vomiting.

Peptide-related content is spreading fast on social media. This raises an important question: When a platform's algorithm is actively promoting sellers, influencers and products to millions of people, how much responsibility does that platform carry for what happens next?

What we know so far

Recent research found more than 130,000 Instagram posts and more than 230 million TikTok views of peptide-related content. That's not a drug market operating in the shadows; it's playing out in plain sight on platforms millions of people check every day.

This finding was echoed at a recent roundtable hosted by the University of Queensland that focused on public health and peptides. It brought together researchers, clinicians and people with experience using these products from a variety of organizations. Social media came up repeatedly.

Stakeholders said social media is now one of the easiest ways to find out about peptides and buy them. But that ease of access comes without the information you'd normally get from person-to-person interactions—like what to do if something goes wrong when using these substances.

Attendees also raised a larger issue: Many people using peptides don't see themselves as "drug users" at all and may be reluctant to seek help from health care services.

This problem is not restricted to Australia. Peptide-related content is becoming a global issue, mimicking earlier online trends seen within image- and performance-enhancing drug communities.

And even if you've "done your own research" and trust the seller, you still can't know for certain what you're injecting into your body.

Independent laboratory testing of several peptide products bought through the same unregulated online market tells the story. Products sold as retatrutide (an experimental weight-loss peptide not approved for use anywhere, but widely used by bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts) ranged from 51% to 190% of their labeled dose.

In our wider testing of steroid and peptide products, some samples contained none of the active ingredient at all. Others contained a completely different substance from the label.

That matters because dosing errors with these substances aren't trivial. They can result in serious health effects.

So what should platforms be doing?

Social media companies do respond when peptide sales are flagged, typically by removing or restricting the individual post or account.

That's necessary, but it's the smallest possible intervention against this surging market, and new listings replace old ones almost as fast as they vanish. Several things would go further.

In a parallel trend, research has found illicit vape content thriving on TikTok with slick, highly shareable videos. Information on health risks was largely absent from these videos, which instead commonly featured themes of apathy toward the law, entertainment and shared experience.

And the parallels don't stop at marketing: Illicit vapes can also contain substances that people neither expect nor intend to consume.

In June 2026, etomidate, a potent sedative, was detected in a vape sold in Melbourne, highlighting how little is known about the contents and emerging risks of Australia's illicit vape supply.

Peptides appear to be following the same playbook. One fix is to meet people in the same feeds the sellers are already using, with something more compelling than a static warning.

First, proactive health literacy is needed for young people. Platforms already do this for other risks—search "how to lose weight fast" or anything suicide-related on Instagram or TikTok, and you're shown a warning screen and pointed to a helpline.

There's no reason the same intervention model couldn't apply to peptide-related searches, explaining in plain terms what these products are, what's actually known about them and where to get reliable health information.

Second, regulators and researchers need a real, ongoing window into the scale of this market, especially for peptides.

At the moment, nobody has a live picture of how fast this market is growing, which products are moving through which channels or where the next serious harm is likely to show up. Structured, ongoing data-sharing arrangements between platforms, regulators and independent researchers would let us see problems coming instead of reading about them after someone has ended up in an emergency department.

The platforms hosting this market didn't directly invent the demand for these products. Right now, though, they are the easiest place for a curious 16-year-old to find a seller—and one of the hardest places for that same teen to find something honest about what they're injecting.

Key medical concepts

PeptidesretatrutideSemaglutide

Clinical categories

Clinical pharmacologyPreventive medicineCommon illnesses & PreventionWeight managementHealthy living Provided by The Conversation Who's behind this story?

Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Citation: Peptides are spreading on social media. Here's how platforms can better protect public health (2026, September 17) retrieved 17 September 2026 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-peptides-social-media-platforms-health.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.