When Anti-Consumption Goes Viral: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Deinfluencing on TikTok

In early 2023, the #deinfluencing hashtag started to gain significant traction on the short-form video platform TikTok. Originating as a reaction against excessive and trend-driven forms of consumption, deinfluencing content typically involves creators on TikTok discouraging fellow users from purchasing products that are perceived to be either too expensive, “overhyped”, or simply unnecessary. The study investigates how TikTok users engage discursively with the deinfluencing trend, drawing on a corpus of 15 TikTok videos published between 2023 and 2025. Employing Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) as its methodological approach, the study focuses on how linguistic, visual, and audio semiotic resources interact in the construction of deinfluencing discourse on TikTok. Particular attention is paid to semiotic choices such as representational strategies, transitivity, modality and presupposition in language, and how these are complemented by the salience of particular objects and settings in the videos, as well as by gaze, distance and tone of voice of the creator. From this material, three broad thematic categories were identified: Constructing the credibility of the deinfluencer; Framing consumption in deinfluencing discourse; and Negotiating anti-consumption on TikTok. The analysis reveals that TikTok users participating in the deinfluencing trend enhanced their credibility through different but often interconnected strategies, including recounting first-hand experience with a product, demonstrating knowledge and expertise, and performing authenticity, often by symbolically positioning themselves in opposition to influencers and other figures associated with aspirational lifestyles and excess or luxury consumption. Consumption was framed as inherently aspirational, with overconsumption often being attributed to the desire to become a better, idealized version of oneself. Beyond aspiration, consumption was frequently evaluated according to criteria of financial justifiability and necessity, as well as in relation to the viral trends circulating on TikTok. Ultimately, the findings suggest that deinfluencing discourse on TikTok should not be understood as a coherent anti-consumption movement, as critiques of overconsumption often remain deeply embedded in TikTok’s commercial and visibility-driven platform environment.