Twitter has a moderation issue that makes viewing replies on the platform a risky bet. That reports NBC News, videos of violence against animals on the platform have become ubiquitous in the responses to popular tweets. For example, searching for “cat” in the search bar could autocomplete as “cat in a blender.” These videos will also auto-play for users who have not disabled that feature in their settings.
Twitter has long been plagued by moderation issues, which escalated with Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform and subsequent mass layoffs. In 2022, users took advantage of the option to purchase a verified check mark through Twitter Blue to impersonate celebrities and brands. Twitter Blue has made a series of changes after this first wave, although impersonation is still an issue. The use of hate speech is also much more common on Twitter. These videos are especially common in the “hidden replies” section, which is designed to make low-quality or harassing comments less visible.
Hidden answers have gotten more than out of hand
They’re not even funny anymore, it’s just really horrific, horrible shit that no human should ever witness
I’m fucking serious, fix this shit
— Colin (@IntroSpecktive) May 15, 2023
Brother, they need to do something about animal cruelty videos in the replies here. Getting worse.
— Mutahar (@OrdinaryGamers) May 15, 2023
While Twitter seems to have disabled autocomplete suggestions in the site’s search bar, these videos can still show up in replies, especially if the user has purchased Twitter Blue, boosting their replies to the top of the chain. To prevent videos from previewing, users can go to their Settings and Privacy menu and select Accessibility, Display, and Languages.
First, check the ‘Motion’ menu and make sure Autoplay is set to Never. You can also check the Playback menu and look for the Media Previews option. Once that option is enabled, the media will be previewed as a text link instead of displaying a thumbnail.
Some user-created accounts, such as “HIDDEN ANSWERS CHECKER!!!will manually check hidden replies on demand and share the content of these posts with descriptions such as “Zootopia Rule 34” or “it’s a guy blowing his head off with a shotgun.”
As Twitter’s problems continue to mount, it’s not clear whether the platform will address this troubling trend. Other forms of NSFW and disturbing imagery are also easy to find on Twitter, including images of a child’s death.