Can Instagram Warn People About Wildlife Exploitation?

Instagram's message to all its users about abuse towards endangered wild animals

Social media platform, Instagram, has recently joined the battle against cruelty related to wildlife. This can be seen that when an Instagram user either looks for or clicks on a hashtag that is usually linked to abusive behavior towards endangered species such as posing with or holding wild animals, the following warning message would show up: "You are searching for a hashtag that may be associated with posts that encourage harmful behavior to animals or the environment." When the user clicks through to "Learn more," he or she is guided to a page on wildlife exploitation with information warning tourists against taking photos with endangered exotic animals. Instagram has worked with several wildlife organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), TRAFFIC, and World Animal Protection, to find the most commonly used hashtags identified with abusive behavior towards animals, including animal tourism and the illegal wildlife trade. An Instagram representative indicated that hundreds of hashtag combinations will now produce the warning. These combinations range from phrases that turn to be used on photos of tourists with captive animals such as #lionselfie, to more outrageous ones linked to illegal wildlife trafficking like #exoticanimalforsale. A simple cursory search of such hashtags can result in thousands of photos showing people touching the animals or posing next to them being held in captivity.

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Although most people know that trafficking endangered species and selling their body parts is illegal and harmful to them, everyone does not consider photos of someone either holding a monkey or riding an elephant as threatening an animal's well-being - but they often can be. Some signs of whether an animal may be being mistreated include an animal being held, constrained or kept caged for tourists. Initially, Instagram had a policy that did not permit images showing animal abuse or sale of endangered animals. But now, the staff in support of the app's monitoring and reporting system have received further education from wildlife experts on what kinds of activities are abusive or illegal when it comes to animals. Instagram's latest program warning users about wildlife exploitation works much like those installed by the platform last year related to issues of self-harm, which triggered a pop-up message to users looking for hashtags related to eating disorders, suicide, and other topics. However, Instagram's warning system does have its drawbacks. For example, the message which pops up after clicking on a given hashtag related to wildlife photos would not show up to warn a user if he/she is the one posting a photo with the hashtag. In addition, anyone who sees the warning can easily click "show posts" and go about their search for such photos. According one Instagram representative, the goal of this program aims to educate people who might not know that their actions can support activities in the tourism industry that are harmful to animals.

Due to the popularity of elephants in Asia's tourism industry, tourists have their pictures taken riding on them often not understanding the animals' well-being.

I find it very impressive and beneficial that Instagram has joined forces with wildlife organizations to warn and educate users about the cruelty behind photos they take of themselves with endangered wild animals. By setting up such a program that warns users about hashtags associated with posts encouraging wild animal abuse and information related to wildlife exploitation, Instagram is reaching out to the global community and raising awareness about the illegal wildlife trade. However, the program's limits include not showing the warning message to users who themselves post photos with hashtags related to wildlife exploitation and that anyone who sees the warning can simply ignore it and proceed to look at such photos by clicking "show posts." I think out of these two drawbacks, the biggest problem is that people choose to ignore the message and spend their time enjoying looking at photos of other people holding endangered wild animals, touching them, taking selfies with them, or doing anything that encourages harmful behavior to the animals. How will people learn about the harmful effects of wildlife exploitation on endangered species, especially if they have never made physical contact with such animals and took pictures of themselves with animals? This is why I believe people should take Instagram's warning very seriously and learn to respect endangered species by giving them their space, never purchasing products made out of their body parts, and understanding the harmful effects of poaching combined with the illegal smuggling of wildlife. At first, these photos of tourists posing with endangered species may appear fun and humorous to look at but when you scratch the surface, it is not what it appears to be. Many of these animals are captured from their natural habitat, kept in cramped conditions, and constantly passed around from one tourist to another for picture-taking which causes extreme trauma. Therefore, people should reconsider their decisions of having their pictures taken with endangered animals when traveling to exotic places and never be fooled by the photos taken of themselves with such animals. If you care so much about the animals and their well-being, then don't do it. Simple as that.

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