this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
144 points (98.6% liked)

Technology

63313 readers
5898 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
144
Instagram 'Error' Turned Reels Into Neverending Scroll of Murder, Gore, and Violence (www.404media.co)
submitted 19 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Mirror: https://archive.is/2025.02.27-154737/https://www.404media.co/instagram-error-turned-reels-into-neverending-scroll-of-murder-gore-and-violence/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 15 points 17 hours ago

In an email, a Meta spokesperson told 404 Media “We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended. We apologize for the mistake.” They said that the problem does not have anything to do with Meta’s recent announcement that it would loosen some content moderation rules.

To prove that this was actually happening, I sent Meta six links to graphic reels. These included two videos of people getting shot in the face, a video of a dead body with no context or obvious news value, a person getting lit on fire, the account called “PeopleDeadDaily,” and the tower of terror video. None of these videos have been deleted.

One of the many problems preventing people from actually holding Meta to account for any of this is that everyone’s feed is so incredibly personalized. Like I said, because we report on the darker corners of the internet, my Instagram feed is full of horrific things on a daily basis, which is probably not everyone’s experience.