Porn scandal on Instagram: 1 million videos hidden under Arabic hashtag

It is known that Instagram does not accept sexually explicit content. Indeed, to be exact has repeatedly lashed out even with the artistic nude removing necessary photos and videos in violation of the terms of use of the service. It is a practice that the company, owned by Facebook, shares with many other direct and indirect competitors. All the greatest names of the web and technology seek to curb pornography: Google prohibits advertising on his circuit, for example, from the Apple app on the App Store.

It is precisely for this reason that the news of recent days about the presence of more than 1 million pornographic videos on Instagram has had an enormous impact on the web. It is certainly a problem for the new platform for sharing photos and videos, that over time the company was able to get around by prohibiting the use of basic hashtag used for this content. However there are those who managed to overcome the restrictions of Instagram using the hashtag extremely long and complex that the company's algorithm does not recognize.

He discovered the blogger Jed Ismael, who took over a lot of images and sexually explicit clips on the service that were not served with any alarm: "The length of the film is limited on Instagram, but their effect on the younger generations" , Ismael wrote on his web page. "It is very likely that children and young people have seen porn on Instagram." The estimate of the million comes from the same blogger who stumbled on video simply trying hashtag #movies Arabic-language: # افلام.

At the time of writing the video identified by the words they have been removed in order to understand in depth what happened and seek further references on the social network to the world of pornography. The Instagram guidelines are in fact very strict on this issue and have tightened further last year: "We know that sometimes people would like to share artistic or creative nudity, but for various reasons do not admit any nudity on the service" we read between the rules of the service. "Among these we mention photos, videos and digital content that show sexual intercourse, genital and close-ups of naked buttocks."

But the "censor" algorithm of the service may be wrong with the users who are apparently trying new methods to escape the watchful eye of the software. In this case it did, but it's still commendable promptness of Instagram response he promptly removed all the files related to the scandal.