Online hate speech is a growing problem, impacting millions of people, while transparency into how social media platforms tackle the problem is limited. In fact, hate speech on the Internet has increased since the pandemic. With this initiative, the Non-Violence Project Foundation wants to draw the attention of both the public and regulators to our call for Instagram to act against growing online hate speech.

Sources: Sky News, Council on foreign relations

Online hate speech is a challenge on all online platforms, but Instagram has long been able to go under the radar. Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms globally, and the platform with the most users between 18 and 24 years of age (30%). More than Facebook and YouTube. These are young people who spend hours on the platform every day. They are still exploring and finding their identity and are at risk of being exposed to hate speech, or worse still, being recruited to extremist groups.

We require Instagram to take more comprehensive measures against hate speech on its platform. Although Instagram has made a few improvements, often in connection with public criticism, the Non-Violence Project Foundation wants to see a solution on how to curb hate speech in the long term. We are happy to work with Instagram to make that happen.

While Instagram doesn’t automatically ban hate-spreading accounts, the algorithm does punish accounts that buy fake followers. In this initiative, we are using Instagram’s own algorithm against itself. We are targeting hate accounts on Instagram by buying them fake followers, which we believe will trigger the algorithms to shadow-ban the accounts and ultimately shut them down.

Yes. Instagram’s rules for fake followers (and for all Meta platforms) explain that, in case of continued use of third-party apps to buy fake followers, the user will see consequences in the form of limited experience. This “limited experience” is what we understand as becoming shadow-banned.

Sources: Instagram – Reducing inauthentic activity on Instagram

It means that your account doesn’t show up on search results or that it shows up further down in a search results. However, it is not an official term used by Instagram.

The chosen accounts are only an excerpt of the massive problem with hate speech on Instagram and are kept anonymous to make sure not to promote specific hate accounts and to keep the focus on the wider challenge regarding hate speech on Instagram.

All targeted accounts directly violate the terms & conditions of Instagram by either spreading hate speech or inciting violence. Every account chosen should already have been closed by Instagram according to their own terms and conditions.

Sources: Instagram terms and condtions