Sensitive content mentioned, viewer discretion is advised.
Users on Instagram were surprised to see a complete lack of moderation of the reels feature on February 26. Users experienced a significant amount of sensitive content taking over their feed, even with the “Sensitive Content Control” feature enabled. Meta, the app’s parent company, has since apologized for the issue.
Instagram Reels are typically determined through an algorithm based on posts a user has engaged with, similar to TikTok. Instead of content based on interests, users reported a flood of violent and graphic content. Despite being marked as “Sensitive Content,” users may still view the content.
“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,” said a Meta spokesperson to CNBC. Meta released this statement after many people complained both in person and through social media.
Students at Anderson High School also voiced their complaints about the flood of graphic content. “Well there were cartel vids, shootouts, some guy got shot in the neck and bled out on camera footage (sic),” said senior Joseph Tungate-Roblero. “A lot of porn.”
Sophomore Colson Gray experienced similar types of graphic content. “Well most of them were mostly fights for some reason,” said Gray, “and if it wasn’t that, it was something with gore, like seeing blood or human body parts that were experienced.”
According to Meta’s violent and graphic content community standards page, Meta does not allow posts showing “Dismemberment, visible innards, such as exposed organs, bones, or muscle tissue on living or deceased persons; burning or charred persons; or throat-slitting.” Meta’s page also says, “We recognize that users may share content in order to shed light on or condemn acts such as human rights abuses or armed conflict.”
When asked if any content viewed fell under any of the banned categories, Gray said, “Yes bro, I saw like, 5 live executions.”
The disturbing content had almost no effect on some viewer’s scrolling habits. Junior Kyler Allen claims he wasn’t disturbed at all. “I feel like ‘disturbing content’ is a weird term to describe it,” said Allen, “sure it was violent and weird but it never really shook me.”
Tungate-Roblero kept scrolling saying, “I was js tryna find some memes (sic).” Gray also mentioned looking for other videos, stating, “I wanted to see if it would ever end, but it didn’t.”
Meta has yet to release a statement on how they would prevent anything like this from occurring again, only that they have fixed it.
