Instagram's Algorithm Linked to Vast Pedophile Network for Child Pornography

Instagram's recommendation algorithm linked and promoted a "vast pedophile network" that advertised the sale of illicit "child-sex material" on the platform, according to a report by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The hashtags directed users to accounts that offered to sell pedophilic materials via "menus" of content, including videos of children harming themselves or committing acts of bestiality. Instagram has since restricted the use of thousands of additional search terms and hashtags and disabled more than 490,000 accounts that violated its child safety policies in January. Meta, Instagram's parent company, has set up an internal task force to investigate these claims and address them.