Animal cruelty on social media platforms isn’t new, but hundreds of videos on social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube of wild animals being kept as pets in hostile environments have been going viral in the past year, a new report finds.

Videos showingA report by the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition(SMACC) shows that wild animals are abused and kept in captivity on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. This is according to billions of people. Between September 2021 to September 2022, SMACC discovered 840 videos showing endangered wild animals, such as macaques or tigers. These videos had a total 11.8 billion viewers.

The report, which was produced by a coalition of 13 global animal protection organizations including Animals for Asia Coalition and World Animal Protection, found disturbing videos of wild animals being physically and psychologically tormented by people who are seen “slapping, hitting, biting, shaking, or knocking animals over.” Many of the videos show these wild creatures being kept as pets, which is abusive and damaging in its own right. Around 60% of the collected videos were found on Facebook, while 25% were found online on YouTube. One group of fifty volunteers collected and reported the videos to both platforms. None were removed by SMACC when they analyzed the data in October 2022.

Jen Ridings of Meta, who is a spokesperson for the company, said that they will examine the reports and take corrective action against any violative content. Meta’s policies for prohibited violent and graphic content includes explicit physical harm or abuse done to animals. Meta relies on human reviewers and technology to keep its content under control. It does not have any policy regarding wild animals that are kept as pets.

TikTok reacted by citing its community guidelines which prohibit content that encourages illegal wildlife trade or animal cruelty. YouTube’s policies prohibit content that show deliberate physical harm to animals, according to YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon. “While the videos provided by SME don’t violate our policies, we’re committed to removing any content that violates our Community Guidelines,” Malon told SMEIn an email

These videos included 64 percent of endangered species, as determined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“What may look like a loving owner feeding their pet tiger with milk, what they are seeing is actually an endangered species who has and will suffer immensely.”

This is due to the fact that social media platforms have not given these videos the priority they deserve and lack of education on the negative psychological consequences of keeping wild animals as pets. These videos are spread …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer