An Instagram representative said that there is an algorithmic error when proposing phrases related to weight loss for people with eating disorders.
Accordingly, the “mistake” in the algorithm was shown that when the user navigated to the Instagram app’s search bar, auto-diet phrases were suggested, including “fasting” and “medicine. suppression of appetite “.
Insider Instagram representatives apologized when the system suggested these keywords to people recovering from eating disorders. Cristina Criddle, a spokesperson for the app, told BBC indicates that the above error is now fixed. Having struggled with an eating disorder, Victoria Spence said that the keyword Instagram suggested could hurt newcomers. “To help people discover what they’re interested in, we’ve rolled out a new way to search on Instagram by suggesting keywords as they move to the search bar. Those suggestions, as well as ourselves. search results, limited to common interests, “a Facebook spokesperson – which owns Instagram – said in a statement to Insider . “Losing weight” should not be one of the keywords to suggest, this person added. “We’ve taken steps to prevent these terms from appearing. We apologize for causing any confusion.” Instagram says it doesn’t allow content that encourages eating disorders to appear and deletes posts as soon as it detects them. Users are allowed to talk about recovery from the disorder, but the hashtags associated with it begin with #thinspo , #proana and #anabuddy blocked. The social network also said that posts promoting super speed weight loss products were also banned. According to Dr. Bryony Bamford, Clinical Director at The London Center for Eating Disorders and Body Image, the damage happened when a user saw a keyword on Instagram. “Many people with eating disorders or recovery may be affected by useless messages they see on social media. Diet or weight loss keywords can trigger awareness of the disorder. “After recovery is a time when they are extremely vulnerable, exposure to the above factors has the risk of causing the disease again,” she said. How Instagram recommends search keywords to users. Victoria Spence, an influencer once suffering from an eating disorder, regularly shares articles about her recovery. Spence says she doesn’t believe Instagram promoting diet content is an algorithmic mistake. “Instagram is a platform to advertise, and the diet food industry is a multibillion-pound giant. The problem with content promotion revolves around ‘appetite suppression’ and ‘planning.’ Weight loss ‘on a platform with a large number of young users shows that they are normalizing diets and celebrating weight loss methods’. Spence argues that Instagram needs to improve the algorithm for diet posts to be pushed down. “The question is whether they really care about users or value profit more as businesses,” she said.
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