When my Instagram post got flagged for 'violence' and it was a photo of my cat batting at a toy mouse

It happened last Tuesday around 2pm. I uploaded a perfectly harmless picture of my orange tabby, Chester, swatting at a little blue plush mouse on the living room rug. Three hours later, Instagram sent me a notice saying the post violated their community guidelines on violent content. I had to submit an appeal and explain that it was a 12 year old cat playing with a fabric toy. The appeal went through the next morning, but it still makes me wonder how an automated system can be that off base. Has anyone else had a completely innocent photo flagged for something bizarre?

3 comments

3 Comments

ross.lily1mo ago

I read a news article last week about a wildlife photographer who got banned for posting a picture of a lion eating a zebra. The algorithm apparently can't tell the difference between a cat playing and actual violence. It seems like these automated systems just scan for keywords like "cat" and "toy" without any real understanding of context.

rileygarcia1mo ago

But isn't it actually kind of impressive that the algorithm is trying to protect users from graphic content, even if it gets it wrong sometimes? A lion eating a zebra is pretty violent by human standards, so maybe the system is doing exactly what it was designed to do (just not the way the photographer wanted).

blair_nguyen1mo ago

Feels like we're all way too worried about what a computer thinks of our cat pictures these days. Is it really that deep when the algorithm gets confused faster than my grandma trying to use a smart TV?