Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms where people share photos, videos, and a number of tips for a healthy diet. There were some harmful terms related to diet on the search function of this app that automatically recommends these terms to some people including appetite suppressants and fasting to some people, due to this, susceptible people could be triggered and even deteriorate. However, Instagram has said that it has removed these harmful terms from its platform and apologized for its mistake on Monday. Instagram has focused on the interests of people and rolled out a new search functionality to help its users conveniently discover and explore the content that they want.
Instagram collects the data related to users interests and the new search functionality will help them search for the topics in which they are interested, and that they want to search for, and weight loss should not have been one of them. An Instagram influencer named Lauren Black said that whenever he used this app, he was promoted by certain things like calories count and diet approaches. Many people search for recovery tips for eating disorders but they find some terrible stuff on this platform that could be much damaging for their health. Some posts on Instagram are very helpful for people there is no doubt, but some of the health material may cause an adverse effect on the health of people due to which this should be removed. For instance, the triggering imagery should be stopped, because people are getting bombarded on how to lose their weight. Many people want to lose their weight and they are ready to do anything for it, instead of searching for the content that whether the given information is authentic or not, they just blindly follow the instruction given.
Instagram should remove such contents which are promoting eating disorders, and it should ban such advertisement of weight-loss products to over-18s. Hope Virgo, who is an eating disorder campaigner said that the content related to diet are getting worst on this platform and many people who have the history of eating disorder are repeatedly recommended damaging content by the platform. However, Instagram claims that it only promotes the discussion of fitness and healthy diet in the app’s exploring section.
Dr. Joshua Wolrich, an NHS doctor who was alerted by this issue on Instagram said that eating disorders should be dealt with the right way, and suggested that an optional function for users to shift weight loss-related content can help people more. People are suggested to check the authenticity of the content before following it blindly.
H/T: BBC.
Read next: Analysis of 100+ Million Brands Posts Revealed That the Engagement Rate of Instagram is the Same as 2019
Instagram collects the data related to users interests and the new search functionality will help them search for the topics in which they are interested, and that they want to search for, and weight loss should not have been one of them. An Instagram influencer named Lauren Black said that whenever he used this app, he was promoted by certain things like calories count and diet approaches. Many people search for recovery tips for eating disorders but they find some terrible stuff on this platform that could be much damaging for their health. Some posts on Instagram are very helpful for people there is no doubt, but some of the health material may cause an adverse effect on the health of people due to which this should be removed. For instance, the triggering imagery should be stopped, because people are getting bombarded on how to lose their weight. Many people want to lose their weight and they are ready to do anything for it, instead of searching for the content that whether the given information is authentic or not, they just blindly follow the instruction given.
Instagram should remove such contents which are promoting eating disorders, and it should ban such advertisement of weight-loss products to over-18s. Hope Virgo, who is an eating disorder campaigner said that the content related to diet are getting worst on this platform and many people who have the history of eating disorder are repeatedly recommended damaging content by the platform. However, Instagram claims that it only promotes the discussion of fitness and healthy diet in the app’s exploring section.
Dr. Joshua Wolrich, an NHS doctor who was alerted by this issue on Instagram said that eating disorders should be dealt with the right way, and suggested that an optional function for users to shift weight loss-related content can help people more. People are suggested to check the authenticity of the content before following it blindly.
H/T: BBC.
Read next: Analysis of 100+ Million Brands Posts Revealed That the Engagement Rate of Instagram is the Same as 2019
