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The popular social network Instagram will alert about selfie-type photographs that may encourage animal abuse.
An investigation by World Animal Protection revealed an increasing tendency to publish photographs with wild animals on Instagram, where tourists without the necessary expert knowledge hold, manipulate and embrace wild animals, endangering their welfare and conservation.
The new alert function identifies if the hashtag or tag that the user uses could be associated with cruelty behavior with wildlife. In these cases it takes users to a site where they can learn about the reality behind the photographs with wild animals in tourist sites.
The research by World Animal Protection revealed that Costa Rica and Panama are among the countries where more photographs are taken and published with wild animals around the world. Iconic species from Latin America, such as sloths, are torn from their natural habitats to be sold in markets and then used in these types of photographs.
In October, Instagram received an alert over an increase of 292% in the number of selfies with wild animals published on the site since 2014. More than 40% of those photographs showed negative interactions with wildlife, for example, someone hugging, holding or manipulating a wild animal inadequately.
After conversations between the organization and Instagram, the social network announced on Monday that when one of its 800 million users looks for a hashtag related to dangerous behavior for animals, they will see an alert screen that will say
Animal abuse and the sale of animals in danger of extinction, or of their parts, are not allowed on Instagram.”
Currently there are hundreds of tags on Instagram like #Slothselfie or #Monkeyselfie.