From the link you gave:

> During the popularity of Tide Pods as an Internet meme, in the month of January 2018, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) "recorded 606 exposures in children less than 5 years old," in addition to an increase in teenage exposures. In January 2018, there were more teenagers exposed to pods than in all of 2016 or 2017.

It sure sounds like the internet memes did in fact lead to a big increase in consumption of pods. Also, note that the 2012 and 2013 numbers were for young children. Internet memes would be more likely to be seen to older children and teens.

The vast majority of tide pod consumption has always been young kids. And TikTok isn’t to blame for that. There may have been a small uptick in consumption by older kids “for the lulz” at some point, but that doesn’t make TikTok the culprit for tide pod eating at large.

To tie it back, some demographics might have had their antigenocidal views dictated by tiktok, but to claim the bulk of people would not have reached for them without tiktok’s influence is absurd.