Feb 27 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms ( META ) said on

Thursday it had resolved an error that flooded the personal

Reels feeds of Instagram users with violent and graphic videos

worldwide.

It was not immediately clear how many people were affected

by the glitch. Meta's comments followed a wave of complaints on

social media about violent and "not safe for work" content in

Reels feeds, despite some users having enabled the "sensitive

content control" setting meant to filter such material.

"We have fixed an error that caused some users to see

content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been

recommended. We apologize for the mistake," a spokesperson for

Meta said.

It did not disclose the reason behind the error.

Meta's moderation policies have come under scrutiny after it

decided last month to scrap its U.S. fact-checking program on

Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the world's biggest

social media platforms with more than 3 billion users globally.

Violent and graphic videos are prohibited under Meta's

policy and the company usually removes such content to protect

users, barring exceptions given for videos that raise awareness

on topics including human rights abuse and conflict.

The company has in recent years been leaning more on its

automated moderation tools, a tactic that is expected to

accelerate with the shift away from fact-checking in the United

States.

Meta has faced criticism for failing to effectively balance

content recommendations and user safety, as seen in incidents

like the spread of violent content during the Myanmar genocide,

Instagram promoting eating disorder content to teens and

misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru;

Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)