Reporting animal cruelty content on social media is worth it! No matter how frustrating it may seem, we know that public reporting is crucial to the success of campaigning to remove cruelty content.
Let us tell you how…
At SMACC, we have a team of volunteers who are actively locating and reporting links to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter. In 2022 alone, we have reported more than two thousands links to the platforms! Every single report made to the platforms is also reported to SMACC via our reporting form. We encourage members of the public to use the form too www.smaccoalition.com/report-a-concern.
Amazingly, 31% of the links we reported this year were removed, meaning that 631 links have been removed out of the 2016 links reported. That’s almost 1 video out of 3 removed.
Of course, social media platforms need to do better, and at SMACC, we will keep applying pressure to see this number going up. In the meantime, we need you to keep reporting such content to the platforms, it is the best tool members of the public currently have.
When we ask people to report animal cruelty content directly to social media platforms, many people have the same response. “It’s pointless. They never remove the videos!”. We can understand why it may feel this way when you receive a disappointing response from the platform explaining that it did not ‘breach their policy’.
Yet, we know that social media platforms do pay attention to the types of content that is being reported. It is one thing that can influence where they put their resources for creating new policies. They need to see that animal cruelty is an urgent issue, and that their users are not happy with seeing such content on their platform.
This is why it is crucial to keep reporting, to show the platforms that animal cruelty is a major concern to their users.
We know social media companies don’t exactly make it easy! When you click ‘Report’, which category do you use? We have created some short and handy videos to help you report animal cruelty for each platform, to show you exactly which categories to choose when reporting.
Not yet convinced?
A video showing a baby macaque monkey being repeatedly hit by their ‘owner’ was available on social media. After reporting to the platform, this video was removed, meaning this abuse could not be shared online anymore. Another video showing a fake rescue, where puppies were tied up in a bag with tape around their muzzles, was removed after being reported.
Now that you know the value of reporting, and how to do it, please remember to do this anytime you see animal cruelty content!
Be aware: learn about animal cruelty content and how to identify it. It is not always obvious, for example, some content creators pretend to rescue animals when they have put these animals in distressing situations in the first place.
Report them: always report animal cruelty content directly to the platform. You can also report them to SMACC, using our reporting form.
Do not watch: Never watch animal cruelty content. Each view increases visibility and profitability of the video.
Do not engage: Never comment or engage in animal cruelty content, regardless of your intentions. Each comment or engagement helps boost the post and makes it more popular.
Do not share: Never share such content, even to raise awareness. If these videos had no reach, there would be no incentive to film them in the first place.
To tackle animal cruelty, we need to adopt strategies that align with how social media platforms function. Viewing, commenting, engaging and sharing with animal cruelty content, even to raise awareness or express outrage add views and visibility to the posts. The best course of action is to give animal cruelty content no space at all on social media. Report it directly to the platforms and to SMACC and scroll away. Together, we can keep making the situation better, but we all need to unite our voices and actions!