Fedigram

I have been having some problems with Instagram.

It’s been recommending increasingly violent and unpleasant reels to me; car crashes, road rage, robberies, theft, ‘Karen’ videos, and extremely violent retributional ‘justice’ (the kind where people actually die). I mark them as “not interested” and “this makes me uncomfortable" but it doesn’t stop, they just get worse.

Then it started pushing adverts for illegal stuff. Class A and B drugs, counterfeit money, cloned cards, fake passports and driving licenses. I reported the ads, but Instagram said they didn’t go against their community standards. Like, wtf.

I blocked some of the accounts pushing it as well, and I noticed that their profiles were stuffed with bible verses. I wondered if this was a masking technique, or the drugs are an attempt to hook vulnerable people into their cult.

And that leads in quite well to what happened next on Instagram.

No more ads for illegal stuff. Now it’s crucifix crucifix crucifix and bible verse after bible verse, on shorts, t-shirts, notebooks, key rings, baseball caps, everything. Gym shorts with some phrase from Isaiah on the leg, like that’s at all normal. And then quran stuff! Qibla finders, prayer mats, ‘modesty clothing’, jewellery with “god is great” in Arabic on it, on and on. Not one or two, but every single advert on Instagram was religious propaganda shit.

And you tell people about it. “Oh I don’t get that” or “have you tried reporting the ad?”

In other words, it’s your fault, you brought this on yourself.

So. I've deleted everything on my instagram account. I wish I could delete it outright but it's the only way I can keep in touch with some people since the Twitter thing. I'll post photos here and to Mastodon instead (link in footer).