Instagram’s algorithms have long been accused of being broken, but new research has highlighted the disturbing consequences of hyper-targeted content.and university researchers found the Meta-owned platform hosts underage-sex content and builds a network of pedophiles with similar interests in illegal content, suggesting them to sellers of child-sex material.
Researchers set up test accounts that viewed only one account in the network and watched as Instagram began to recommend child-sex content sellers and buyers, and bombard the accounts with exploitative material. Using hashtags relating to underage sex, researchers discovered 405 sellers of so-called “self-generated” illicit material, or otherwise accounts purportedly run by kids as young as 12. Of those seller accounts, 112 had 22,000 followers in total.