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An animal welfare organization is calling YouTube, TikTok, Facebooka Instagram to delete content that depicts animal abuse.
The Asia for Animals Social Media Animal Coalition (SMACC) has 25 members: Action for Primates, Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, Animals Asia Foundation, Born Free UK, Born Free USA, Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations, Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, Humane Society International, International Animal Rescue , Lady Freethinker, Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, PETA Asia, Taiwan SPCA, Welttierschutzgesellschaft eV, and World Animal Protection.
SMACC recently conducted a study looking at 840 videos and ads uploaded to YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram between September 2021 and September 2022.
The majority of videos and ads included images of wild animals kept as pets—mainly primates, which were featured in 76% of the videos. The SMACC classifies all care of wild animals as abuse, but says that the reports it has examined also include abuse, including animals being drowned, beaten, tortured, burned, buried alive, and disposed of in conditions of “death or prolonged death.”
“The top three types of abuse recorded were mental torture (13%), animals for entertainment (12%) and physical abuse (8.7%),” SMACC found.
The 840 videos/posts received a total of more than 11.8 billion views, the coalition said.
It added that during the study, “no time was wasted in providing new information,” adding that “our findings only scratch the surface of a larger problem.”
“Due to limited resources and access to data within the platforms, it is not possible to quantify the scale of the problem or document the types of animals and individuals involved,” he said. the party. “What is clear is that these stories are common and popular on social media, because there is an important issue that needs to be addressed.”
It focused on situations in which animals died or were prolonged, and saw an increase in the popularity of “fake recovery” stories, where animals are placed in lethal situations in order to ” salvation” as a view. A very popular type of fake rescue involves animals such as dogs, kittens, and small monkeys being placed in front of snakes such as Burmese pythons and “saved” at the last second before they strike. the snake.
SMACC says that content depicting wildlife is of concern as wildlife may encourage viewers to try to conserve wildlife. It cited a 2018 study from World Animal Protection that found 15% of pet owners surveyed said YouTube videos encouraged them to buy their pets.
SMACC needs standard definitions
The coalition accuses YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram of “other types of cruel and illegal activities, such as child abuse, defamation and discrimination” and “extremely more than against all forms of animal cruelty.”
These four platforms and other social media platforms are expected to adopt standard definitions of what constitutes animal abuse content and ensure that the content is removed.
You can read the full outline of his SMACC study here (though be warned, the report contains some dark details).
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