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Instagram flooded feeds with gore. ‘Sorry’ doesn’t cut it

Users need to hold Meta to account for showing them videos of extreme violence and death.

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On Feb 27, reports circulated of an “error” on the app that pushed videos of extreme violence and death into Instagram feeds.

On Feb 27, reports circulated of an “error” on the app that pushed videos of extreme violence and death into Instagram feeds.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Dave Lee

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When I was 14, I was looking for a video on the most popular file-sharing app of the time – Limewire – and started a download.

The video that arrived did not match the description. What I saw instead is as vivid in my mind today as it was in the seconds after I’d shut it off, reacting too slowly to miss the horror of a young woman’s murder. That’s the sort of thing that could happen in those days, when the internet was a true Wild West. It was the risk you took when you used those kinds of services.

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