The Internet Is Starting to Turn on MLMs

This week, when TikTok announced an updated version of its community guidelines, one small addition was more surprising than the others. Under a section of policy prohibiting various types of “Frauds and Scams”—which used to focus on outright Ponzi schemes, get-rich-quick hoaxes, and phishing attempts—the company became the first major social-media platform to declare that multilevel marketing was verboten as well. The addition “helps our community understand what to expect on TikTok and what to report to us,” a spokesperson told me. “Which further helps to protect people, especially those who may be vulnerable or unaware of MLMs.”

By word count in a set of company policies, the change is a small one. But in the was associated with suburban Tupperware parties and teens . Today, MLMs thrive mostly online—in the spammy invitations to virtual Scentsy parties from people on Facebook you barely know, in the Instagram Stories of glamorous influencers who promise that some product changed their life (just DM to join their team!).