Twitter faces new trend of animal gore videos beneath hidden replies

Twitter has a moderation problem that makes viewing any replies on the platform a risky gambit. As reported by NBC News, videos of violence against animals on the platform have become ubiquitous in the replies to popular tweets. Searching “cat” in the search bar, for instance, can auto-complete as “cat in a blender.” These videos also autoplay for users who have not disabled that feature in their settings.

Twitter has been struggling with moderation problems for a long time, which escalated with Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform and the subsequent mass layoffs at the company. In 2022, users took advantage of the ability to purchase a verified checkmark via Twitter Blue to impersonate celebrities and brands. Twitter Blue made a series of changes after this initial wave, although impersonation is still an issue. Use of hate speech has also become much more prevalent on Twitter. These videos are especially common in the ‘hidden replies’ section, which is designed to make low quality or harassing comments less visible.

While Twitter appears to have turned off autocomplete suggestions in the site’s search bar, these videos can still appear in replies — especially if the user has purchased Twitter Blue, which boosts their replies to the top of the chain. In order to stop videos from showing previews, users can go to their Settings and Privacy menu, and select Accessibility, Display, and Languages.

First, check the ‘Motion’ menu and ensure that Autoplay is set to Never. You can also check the Display menu and look for the Media Previews option. Once that option has been toggled, media will preview as a text link instead of showing a thumbnail.

Some user-made accounts, like “HIDDEN REPLIES CHECKER!!!” will manually check hidden replies upon request, sharing the contents of these posts with descriptions like “Zootopia Rule 34” or “its a man blowing his head off with a shotgun.”

As Twitter’s problems continue to mount, it’s not clear whether this disturbing trend will be addressed by the platform. Other forms of NSFW and disturbing imagery are also easily found on Twitter, including depictions of child death.