Instagram’s own employees thought it was ill-equipped against violent content during the Capitol attack
Instagram employees reported that there were “no existing” protections against an onslaught of violent content in places like the app’s list of most widely used hashtags in the aftermath of Jan. 6, which left the violating content up and users potentially exposed to it. “No media protections on Feed, Stories, Hashtag Top or Live…” one internal report read. Under the heading “What business as usual is failing,” an employee wrote there were no protections against violence and incitement (V&I) across several of the app’s key features.
