Instagram even refuses to remove videos of pets being crushed, despite outrage about such cruelty being featured on their site. It is making money from animal cruelty.
JANE DALTON: Instagram is allowing videos and images of animal cruelty – some of them violent – on its website, masquerading as entertainment, it has been claimed. Dozens of clips and photos uploaded to the app show wild or captive creatures being attacked or deliberately subjected to suffering or tormented. Critics say the social-media giant has a responsibility not to feature anything that encourages copycat cruelty just so that account-holders may earn money or get likes.
One video shows a chained tiger being attacked by a dog; another shows dogs ripping apart a fox. Others include a rabbit having been placed within snatching distance of an alligator. Users say Instagram even has videos of pets being crushed, despite outrage over years about such cruelty being featured on social media… They included a clip of two buffaloes fighting, controlled by ropes held by people…
Alan McElligott, an associate professor of animal behaviour at the University of Roehampton, told The Independent he had reported up to 40 posts to Instagram, requesting they be taken down – but only one had been removed… Dr McElligott said this type of footage should not be published as entertainment… “They encourage ignorant people to make similar vids, which means more animal abuse. And ultimately Instagram is making money from animal abuse”…
Users report that when they too have complained to Instagram about abuse posts they receive automated replies stating the videos “don’t go against community guidelines”… An Instagram spokesman said: “Our community uses Instagram to share their experiences and sometimes this includes content that some find upsetting…
Animal-rights group Peta says Instagram is “a minefield of deceptive accounts that are actually promoting exploitative attractions” such as taking selfies with wildlife or elephant-riding… A new group called Suffering4Selfies is urging Instagram to ban any posts about unethical wildlife entertainment. SOURCE…
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