A new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that Instagram failed to remove the majority of abusive comments against female politicians. The study examined Instagram accounts of 10 female officeholders — five Democrats and five Republicans.
It found that out of 1,000 flagged abusive comments, the social media platform failed to remove 93% of them for violating the app’s rules, over one week after they were reported. The findings highlight a critical gap in content moderation. Furthermore, more than one-fifth of offensive comments came from repeat offenders.
Many unchecked comments contained sexually degrading language and violent threats, including explicit references to rape, injury and death targeting female politicians.
The report also unveiled a pattern of disproportionate online abuse directed at women of color in politics, with Instagram’s content moderation falling short in addressing this issue.
Meta — Instagram and Facebook’s parent company — has repeatedly come under fire from lawmakers for failing to address the spread of hateful content across its platforms.
The report states Meta’s inability to “enforce its community guidelines means the platform is failing women and endangering their safety,” and discourages others from entering the political sphere.
Representatives with the Center for Countering Digital Hate said they want to see lawmakers hold social media companies accountable for failing to address abuse on their platforms. They also want bans on hate speech and violent speech and want Meta to be more transparent with users over rules violations.
Meta has committed to reviewing highlighted examples and removing policy-violating comments while maintaining that not all offensive content may breach their rules.
