Watching your favorite movies abroad? Don’t forget to get your Aeroshield smart DNS to access any geo-restricted content.
Meta has issued an apology after scores of users reported being shown violent, gory and explicit videos on their Instagram Reels pages.
Meta — the parent company of Instagram — was forced to address the issue on February 26, when waves of netizens across the globe were flooded with graphic videos on the platform. According to some reports, explicit videos were even suggested for users who had enabled Instagram’s sensitive content feature, which was introduced in 2021 and prohibits such videos from appearing on feeds.
just saw like 60 people die on instagram reels in the space of 20 minutes pic.twitter.com/jrctr4GbRh
— 𝐃𝐈𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐁𝐈 (@diorgvbi) February 26, 2025
“Bro what is happening on Instagram Reels rn,” one user wrote on X. “I saw about 24 people getting killed in the span of 6 minutes.” Meanwhile, over on Reddit, one netizen said the graphic content was “getting out of hand.” Others summarised that “the algorithm is promoting violent, horny and generally unhinged videos.”
i’ve seen like 50 people die today on instagram reels
— Bugus (@bugusonhere) February 26, 2025
It’s not yet known how many users were affected by the influx. Some users reported seeing extreme fights, gore, and in the most terrifying of cases — acts of murder. According to Meta’s apology, the influx of graphic videos was the result of a “technical error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended.” The statement did not include a reason for the cause of the glitch.
Despite saying it had been fixed, some users still reported seeing violent videos on February 27. It comes amid Meta’s recent move away from employing large teams of content moderators toward a more automated system, which is perhaps responsible for the deluge in explicit content. The influx of explicit content also coincides with the increased scrutiny placed on Meta in the wake of its decision to scrap its U.S. fact-checking programs.
Me after watching Instagram reels at night pic.twitter.com/ufXDwoq39k
— isHaHaHa (@hajarkagalwa) February 26, 2025
That move saw swift rebuke from notable names like Meghan Markle, who warned of the potentially disastrous consequences that might come with a dearth of fact-checks. The change in fact-checking affected Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the world’s biggest social media platforms with more than 3 billion users globally.
Elsewhere, Meta also faced scrutiny following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, with many users claiming a changed feature had made them auto-follow accounts linked to Trump, including the official profiles of JD Vance and Melania Trump.