Zuckerberg’s Instagram Is Hosting AI Fetish Videos of "Asian Amputees"

On Mark Zuckerberg's Instagram, a barely-veiled AI fetish account called "Asian Amputees" has more than 100,000 followers.

Using hashtags like "#amputeegirl," the self-described — apologies in advance — "Asian #amputee beauty" and "Asian #amputee in Thailand" account posts under the name Nok.

The account's avatar depicts a woman whose left arm is amputated above the elbow. Its feed, which has been pumping out content since December 9 of last year, is a grim procession of similarly AI-generated images and videos of left-arm amputee women (who may or may not be intended to represent the "Nok" character) striking influencer poses on rural streets.

There's no question that the material is generated using AI, as made clear by garbled details like fingers and toes.

Needless to say, the vibes are horrendous. Some unseen content creator is pumping out material — no doubt trained on imagery of real people — that fetishizes Asian women and amputees, while the leering comment section plays out exactly how you'd imagine. It's the sort of thing you might expect to find on some greasy porn site; even for Instagram in the age of AI slop, it's off-putting stuff.

While there's nothing wrong with real humans taking agency over their bodies by posting whatever type of images of themselves they want, the "Asian Amputees" page feels far grosser because, since the material is AI-generated, there's no way to know if the person behind the account is disabled, or a woman, or Asian.

The page's bio changed after we first encountered it, illustrating its uncomfortable gaze. While it used to be described, as the below image on the right shows, as an "Asian #amputee beauty ai [sic]," the account's bio now introduces it as "Nok AI," an "Asian #amputee living in Thailand."

Whether the acount's throngs of thirsty followers are aware that the images and video are AI-generated isn't entirely clear ("creeps are too busy creeping to know it's AI," one quipped, but most left heart and flower emojis, sad-sack professions of love, or gross allusions to cannibalism.)

There's no doubt that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, is aware of the "Asian Amputees" account, because we contacted its press office to ask if such fetish material is acceptable on its platforms. We didn't hear back by the time we published this story, but we'll update if we do.

As such, the account's existence sets up an intriguing test of the company's controversial new content rules, which came after Zuckerberg earlier in January announced a sweeping content overhaul that allows far more hate speech in a seeming effort to cozy up to president-elect Donald Trump. The new rules significantly loosen its commitments to policing harmful material on its platforms — at the same time that the company is embracing generative AI, which one exec there recently said will soon lead to AI-powered users that human ones can interact with.

Through a certain dastardly lens, that's exactly what "Asian Amputees" is: an account using AI to pose as a person, and using it to post slitheringly uncomfortable content that clearly appeals to large numbers of fetishists on the platform (its top post has more than 300,000 likes.)

Whether it's what Meta's leadership actually wants on its feeds, of course, is another question entirely. But given its own rules, it's not entirely clear how it would justify removing the account.

The latest iteration of Meta's policies on adult sexual exploitation, for instance, make no mention of AI. A company document on "Helping Teens See Age-Appropriate Contentol" says it'll "remove images and videos containing nudity or explicit sexual activity, including when generated by AI," but the material on "Asian Amputees" doesn't contain explicit nudity or sex — just a clear disrespect for the bodies of other people.

And Meta's policies on child sexual exploitation do prohibit AI-generated suggestive sexual material of kids, but the women depicted on the "Asian Amputee" account don't appear to be children. It also bans "enticing children to engage in sexual activity through sexualized conversations or offering, displaying, obtaining or requesting sexual material to or from children, through purposeful exposure or in private messages," but it's not clear whether the "Asian Amputee" account would fall afoul of those rules.

Its contents are currently viewable both to logged-out users and to accounts set to be underage, according to our testing.

But with Zuckerberg's iron grip over the company, maybe the real question is an ideological one: is his rightward lurch so extreme that it's now okay for kids and adults to be exposed to racist AI fetish content on his platforms?

More on Meta's new content rules: Leaked Facebook Documents Show Exactly How Far You’re Allowed to Turn the "Racism" Dial