Matthew Stevens didn't want to watch anyone die.

Late one night in February, the 19-year-old was in bed, scrolling on Instagram. Amid his feed's usual mix of memes and movie clips, the app recommended a video of two men fighting – a brutal, graphic brawl that left him shaken.

He quickly scrolled past the post, but the Instagram algorithm kept showing him more.

"Every time you scrolled, it just kept going further and further with more graphic and violent fights," Stevens said. Online, users worldwide reported the same experience: On Feb. 26, their feeds were suddenly filled with video after video showing real human suffering and death.

Instagram's parent company, Meta, apologized after the incident, which affected Instagram Reels, the company's short-form video feature similar to TikTok

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