Although social media platforms are good tools for many of us to spend their free time, they can also lead to many negative situations. As it is known, we see that strange trends or videos are viral on social media every day. These trends can cause some terrible events to happen.
For example, recently, data emerged showing that auto thefts are on the rise in the United States due to viral videos. Apart from this, it was even claimed that the currents spreading in channels such as TikTok caused the death of young children. Now a study has shown that these videos, which are popular on platforms, have serious harm not only to humans, but also to animals.
Popular videos on social media dramatically increase animal abuse
The Social Media Coalition for Violence against Animals (SMACC) announced that trends in social media are increasing animal abuse. Stating that viral videos enable some content producers to use wild animals on their channels, the institution reached these results as a result of a research conducted with the support of 13 animal protection organizations.
In the study, which examined 840 videos released between 2021 and 2022 on leading platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, experts found that 97 species are kept as pets, including the endangered spider monkey, crab-eating macaw, tigers and orangutans. A short search found lions in diapers or on a leash, monkeys wearing clothes or fed inappropriate food, and much more.
The behavior you see in the videos is unnatural
Experts pointed out that although these videos may seem entertaining in less endangered animals, the majority of the behaviors we see in these content are unnatural and misunderstood. As an example of this, videos in which the slow loris species, which was quite popular for a while, were tickled, were given as an example. So the behavior you see in this video is not good for the animal at all.
Alan Knight, head of Animal Protection International, said in a statement to IFLScience, “To make loris vulnerable, their teeth are cut with nail clippers or wire cutters before being sold. This movement of the cute loris, who raise their arms to be tickled, is actually a self-protection mechanism. He raises his arms to lick a toxic toxin from his elbow. The reason for this is to defend himself against the person who is holding him prisoner.”
People need to be more conscious, to know that animals suffer
Nicole O’Brien from SMAAC emphasized that people should be aware of this issue in her statements and adds: “Most people circulating on social media do not see the great cruelty against animals in these 30-second videos. People in these content may seem like a loving owner feeding their pet tiger milk, but what they really need to see is an endangered species that has suffered or will suffer a lot.”
Experts say that people’s homes cause both physical and psychological harm to wild animals; He adds that this situation of animals not only supports the illegal animal trade, but also threatens animal welfare and harms the protection of endangered species.
According to experts, social media platforms are not doing enough
The report also adds that it found many videos of physical and sexual abuse of animals, as well as unnatural examples such as dressing up. These videos are reported to the platforms; but it is also among the explanations that very few of them have been removed. In a statement to IFLScience, SMAAC warns that social media platforms are not doing enough and that violence against animals is too much, explaining:
“Platforms obviously don’t do enough to deal with this content, they can’t get it to be removed automatically. They rely on users to report offensive content but still that doesn’t remove them. What our report shows is that so little effort has led to a cycle of cruelty for wild animals. We call on them to stop avoiding their responsibilities and take action.”
Finally, it should be added that we have as much responsibility as social media platforms in preventing the terrible situation. We need to avoid watching and disseminating such animal abuse videos as much as possible and report it when we see it. In this way, we can prevent others from doing such things, and we can play a role in the protection of animals by doing our part.
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