Instagram accidentally used a rape threat as an advertisement

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Instagram accidentally used a rape threat as an advertisement

A lot of likes isn’t always good

Instagram has introduced a number of algorithms that don’t sit well with users, like putting the most liked photos at the top of your feed, filtering photos you might like in from days ago or showing the people you stalk most at the top of your Instagram story viewers. We already know we’re stalking them and they aren’t stalking back — we don’t need reminders.

But one algorithm it definitely needs to fix is the one choosing which photos to use to advertise its services on Facebook, which Olivia Solon learned the hard way when she found out the app was using a screenshot of a rape threat she’d received to try and convince her friends to join.

A journalist at the Guardian, Olivia received this message from someone upset with one of her articles — as many female journalists do.

The message read, “I will rape you before I kill you, you filthy whore,” with a subject line of “Olivia, you fucking bitch!!!!!!!!” and was chosen as a promotional photo because of the amount of attraction, and likes, it had garnered from friends who were upset and supporting her.

Between this, and Facebook allowing people to buy hate-speech targeted ads on their platform, they are going to need to sort out a way to tell what is gaining attention for positive reasons and what is not, before blindly advertising in this way.

0/10 this would not convince me to join.

@carolinephinney