Objective To investigate the effects of the long non-coding RNA ( LncRNA) SNHG1 on the proliferation and metastasis of skin squamous cell carcinoma induced by interleukin ( IL)-6. Methods The relative expression of SNHG1 was detected by qRT-PCR, and cell viability was detected using the cell counting kiT-8 assay. The migration and invasion ability of the cells was detected using the Transwell system, and protein expression of the proliferation marker Ki67, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), E-cadherin, N-cadherin and vimentin was detected by Western blot. Results Compared with that in the normal skin cell line HaCaT, the expression of SNHG1 was significantly increased in the skin squamous cell carcinoma lines A431, SCC13 and SCL-1. After A431 cells were treated with different concentrations of IL-6, the relative expression of SNHG1, cell viability, and number of migrating and invading cells increased significantly compared with that in untreated cells. Furthermore, the expression of Ki67, MMP-2, N-cadherin and vimentin protein was upregulated, whereas E-cadherin protein was downregulated after IL-6 treatment and the expression was dose-dependent. The relative expression of SNHG1, cell viability, number of migrating and invasive cells, and expression of Ki-67, MMP-2, N-cadherin, and vimentin proteins in the IL-6+si-SNHG1 group were significantly lower than those in the IL-6+si-NC group and the expression of E-cadherin protein was significantly higher than that in the IL-6+si- SNHG1 group. Conclusions Interference with SNHG1 expression inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of skin squamous cell carcinoma cells induced by IL-6.