Meta apologises over flood of gore, violence and dead bodies on Instagram

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has apologised after Instagram users were subjected to a flood of violence, gore, animal abuse and dead bodies on their Reels feeds. Users reported the footage dominating their feeds after an apparent malfunction in Instagram’s algorithm, which curates what people see on the app. Reels is a feature on the social media platform that allows users to share short videos, similar to TikTok. An Instagram forum on Reddit, the online discussion platform, contained posts from users referencing the graphic material that had appeared in their feeds in midweek. One user on the subreddit wrote: “I just saw at least 10 people die on my reels.” There were also references by users to a video of a man being crushed by an elephant. Others flagged footage of a man being dismembered by a helicopter and a video where “a guy put his face into boiling oil”. Several users posted videos of their Reels feeds dominated by “sensitive content” screens that are designed to shield users f ... Read full article.