‘I thought I was the only one’: Instagram users shocked after feeds get bombarded with inappropriate content

Opening your Instagram app could land you in a lot of trouble, and depending on where you browse your feed, maybe a sex offender's list.

On Thursday night, a lot of users on the Meta-owned application claimed that full-on x-rated pictures and videos are making their way past its filters. Some folks on X, like this user, claimed that they logged into the application only to see adult-themed content: "Did instagram turn into pornhub for y’all too wtf???" they wrote.

Several other X users replied to her post claiming that this was the case for them too, like one person who said, "Yessssss, like wtf happened to the quotes and funny reels," whereas another remarked: "I done seen a girl getting her meow ate."

In the spirit of keeping things PG, the Daily Dot won't link to some of the examples posted by X users who uploaded screenshot recordings of their feeds. There was one user, who, in just a 12-second clip, showed off three sexually explicit posts in a single scroll session.

me opening instagram and immediately getting flashed pic.twitter.com/enQsOsFHH3

— avery (@averyseesmovies) July 19, 2024

Another replied that one of the posts they saw wasn't even sexual in nature, but was still graphic nonetheless: "I just saw smb giving birth I’m done."

X user Merie (@meriesofyee) said the changes happened after they updated their Instagram app. However, many responded to her post and shared screenshots of their own feeds which featured relatively inoffensive content such as makeup tutorials and food recipes involving cookie dough.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Instagram for further comment to learn if there was a change in its content screening policies and if other users on the app have expressed similar concerns.

TikTokers have replied that they, too, are noticing the social media app has been flooded with pornography, like user @wh0isjaniyah, who wrote in a caption that they "don't even want to open the app anymore."

@wh0isjaniyah i dont even want to open the app anymore.. #instagram #newupdate #fyp #viral #12345678 #tiktok #trending #foryou #relatable #youngcontentcreator ♬ original sound - ????j6niyah ????

She narrates in her video, "Yeah...Instagram go ahead wrap this new update up cause why is there people...why...why are there naked people on my freaking feed? I do not get down like that. Like the little update cool and all, but G, this is too far. Too far."

What's wrong with Instagram?

It could be that the content is only being filtered through to certain accounts—the Daily Dot installed the latest Instagram update on an Android device, scrolling through feeds before and after the latest update and the closest thing to an adult-themed post that came up on our end was this comedy montage about disguises in Bollywood films.

However, the Daily Dot did visit some of the Instagram accounts that were listed in the videos being posted to X and it appears that there is indeed nudity and pornographic content still up on these individual accounts. One account, which showed a lewd act involving a woman and a dog, appears to have been deleted.

During its research, the Daily Dot also noticed some posts from users weren't populating on screen. It's worth mentioning that Microsoft's server outage has been affecting a variety of industries, but it's unclear as to whether or not Meta has any of its data tied to the Redmond, Washington tech monolith.

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