All you need to know about Instagram Reels showing more than usual sensitive content today

Instagram Reels with sensitive content has flooded social media since last night, leaving netizens disturbed. This sudden surge in graphic and violent videos on Reels has caused alarm, even among users who have had their Sensitive Content Control in place.

What content do these Reels have?

Reportedly, the disturbing content includes battles and bodycam recordings of gunshots, leaving netizens speculating about an algorithm tweak or a technical glitch causing this.

“Anyone else seeing this on Instagram? Over the last few hours my IG Reels feed has just begun showing violent or disturbing videos out of the blue,” an user asked on X. “What is going on with Instagram? All I'm getting is sensitive and violent content every few scrolls???” another lamented.

Why the sudden surge of sensitive content?

The recent spike in violent content probably results from either a technical or an algorithm failure. As per reports, Instagram’s AI filters out posts for objectionable content and restricts their visibility. A failure in the system could have made these filters ineffective.

A recent algorithm update could also have unintentionally favoured objectionable content. Meta has admitted the problem, with a spokesperson stating in a media interaction, “We are correcting an error that made some users view content in their Instagram Reels feed that shouldn’t have been suggested. We apologize for the error.”

It would be worth noting here that exactly two years back, on February 26, 2023, the platform had witnessed a similar rise in sensitive content. Coincidence? We hope so!

How to de-clutter your feed?

Here’s how you can reset your Instagram algorithm to de-clutter your feed.

1. Go to your profile

2. Tap the hamburger icon

3. Select ‘What You See’

4. Select ‘Content Preferences’

5. Select ‘Reset Suggested Content’

Hope this gives you a temporary retrieve until Meta comes up with a permanent solution!

PS: Conspiracy theories

Here’s some tea: true-crime podcaster Aryaan Misra has recently released a Reel, theorising the possible reasons for this increase in violent content. According to him, one theory is that the Content Moderation team of Meta has gone on a strike, so there’s no one available to monitor the content. However, the authenticity of this seems questionable as this has been derived from an AI platform.

“Another theory is that there has been an influx of bots today that has spammed Instagram with weird videos of torture and murder,“ he said, later reflecting, “I don’t know why bots would do that, but maybe as a society we have reached a point of brain rot where we get off to this.”