Instagram Apologizes for Showing Stream of Horrific Real-Life Murders in Users' Feeds

Whoops! Sorry for the trauma!

Instagram: it's where people go to get their daily dose of memes and thirst traps, having long given up on it as a way of actually interacting with other human beings. But the vibes spectacularly blew up in everyone's faces this week, when a change to the platform left users chilled to the bone.

On Wednesday, Meta issued an apology for an "error" that led to many Instagram feeds suddenly being flooded with gore, animal abuse, dead bodies, and videos of real-life murders — triggering an outpouring of shocked complaints online.

"We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended," a Meta spokesperson told 404 Media in a statement. "We apologize for the mistake."

Although Meta recently announced that it would be loosening some of its content moderation policies, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company insisted that the error was unrelated, according to 404.

The sheer number of complaints suggests that the hapless "error" was widespread.

"Instagram is now 100% gore," reads the top voted post this month in the r/Instagram subreddit.

The comments on the gruesome videos being shown, 404 found, were filled with complaints from baffled users who didn't understand why the content was intruding into their feeds.

"I had never seen someone being eaten by a shark, followed by someone getting killed by a car crash, followed by someone getting shot," a 404 reader, whose feed was "typically dogs and bikes," told the website.

Here's some of what 404 found after being allowed access to the reader's account: a video of an elephant "flattening a man" after repeatedly stomping on him; a video showing a motorcyclist going up to a pedestrian and shooting them in the head; and multiple videos from an account called "PeopleDeadDaily." You get the grisly picture.

In light of that, it's easy to understand why some users found the experience virtually traumatizing.

"I feel like I lost some humanity today when I exposed myself to seeing so many of those types of videos," wrote one user on Reddit. "I can't sleep when my mind replays those videos."

Instagram and Facebook have long been inundated with horrific content — to such an extent that their moderators, who are often low-paid overseas contractors, have sued Meta for developing PTSD on the job.

It's striking, however, to see it all bubble to the surface so quickly. It's also an unnerving reminder of just how much these social media companies dictate what we see and feel — and how that fragile balance can easily be upset.

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