this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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If Lemmy/Pixelfed/Masto can’t capitalize on this we fucked up.

EDIT: realized it might be email/paywalled. In short, the IG algorithm started showing a huge number of gruesome murder videos to random users for seemingly no reason.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 119 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Better question:

Why is Instagram hosting horrific violence, animal abuse, murders, dead bodies, and other gore videos AT ALL?

They aren't rotten.com, so why host it? If you don't host it, then you don't need to worry about the feeds screwing up.

Do they do porn videos too? There's the next potential problem...

[–] thisisbutaname@discuss.tchncs.de 30 points 5 months ago

Oh there's plenty of porn in there. Not hard-core stuff, and done in a way to fool algorithmic detection, but it's there

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Because people are sick and if you put an upload button on any website, the sickness will spread through it. Instagram has content moderators and probably AI to filter it but if you have more sick people uploading this shit than moderators, well it gets through. Believe me, they dont want to host it because its not advertiser friendly and alienates users.. there is no incentive to them hosting this, as you said, they arent rotten.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

It’s because they are massive online attacks by govt orgs. That’s why they have access to all that footage, especially war footage - it’s theirs. That’s why all those Russian torture videos exist - many are literally just officers and prison guards for Putin, and he releases them as a warning to spies and people abroad. It’s online terrorism

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 52 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I posted this in the other link, from the article:

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.

[–] 18_24_61_b_17_17_4@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago (3 children)

What the hell is the tower of terror video?

[–] PlantJam@lemmy.world 48 points 5 months ago

Any time a video is known by its title instead of a description, it's better not to seek it out.

[–] icedcoffee@lemm.ee 15 points 5 months ago

For anyone not familiar (assuming you’re being serious here) the tower of terror is a ride based on a movie where you’re essentially in a simulated free-falling elevator. No seatbelts or safety inside the box but my understanding is that they are held to the same safety standards as other roller coasters. I legitimately can’t tell if this is about the ride or a real free falling elevator.

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

It's described in the article, got to it from one of the other links on lemmy. It's the older tower of terror smaller carnival rides. The ones that are like 20-40 seats around a central pole and the seats alternate between going up and down the pole at as rapid a pace as that much weight can be cheaply moved.

The video in question is about someone falling off of it.

[–] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 41 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I keep fucking forgetting 404 media is a legit news source and I'm not actually looking at a parody news/onion style community.

[–] amon@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Named like one too

[–] Filetternavn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This was already posted here, and the original post has a paywall bypass link

[–] icedcoffee@lemm.ee 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Doing the lords work and I appreciate you!

[–] slackassassin@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Doing the lords work would probably be to support 404 for doing the lords work ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] icedcoffee@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago
[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There is a simple fix: delete your instagram account.

[–] icedcoffee@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Or don't. Just quit SM and do something else w/ your life.

It's too late for me, but maybe someone else can get out.

[–] Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 15 points 5 months ago

Instagram is so awful. I go to search and it’s filled with AI girls and cosplay/bikini/lingerie girls. I don’t follow any of those kinds of accounts.

[–] Zoldyck@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

Oh they always have a reason, and it's extremely unethical

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

That explains a lot for my feed. I’ve been getting more fights, and a lot more republican propaganda than I had ever in the past. I usually just close the app and wait 15 minutes before trying again, which usually “resets” my feed.

[–] Juice@midwest.social 11 points 5 months ago

My son showed me this last night, its insane. Its like one video from his feed and then two videos of people getting mauled

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The rumor is that the moderation team for those images which on strike temporarily

[–] icedcoffee@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago

I am choosing to believe this and no one can convince me otherwise

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

Yep. Just checked. I don’t use it hardly at all, but now it’s loaded with pro-trump, -musk, -doge, transphobe, etc. Just a crapload of right-wing bullshit.

[–] LordGimp@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

I'm just happy ig is letting porn through. Cooters and hooters out and about is an indicator of a healthy social media environment

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Not even a cycle ago I wrote a long post about optional (pluggable, like you can choose different sources of weather in some applet or of exchange rates in some personal finances application ; except unlike these, you'd have to query such for every post your client application should display or consider banned) moderation authorities in a hypothetical social media system.

[–] diemartin@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

My mother doesn't use Instagram, but she's been getting videos on Facebook of people in shootouts/duels/armed robberies/etc, apparently from a brazilian (or at least Portuguese speaking) page, usually ending with someone dead.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

Zuckerberg is trying to learn what make HUMANS tic, so he can better communicate with organic lifeforms.

[–] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)