Instagram’s recommendation algorithms promoted links to a “vast pedophile network” according to a shocking report by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst

The social media platform allows users to trawl the platform, using hashtags such as #pedowhore, #preteensex, and #pedobait, which linked to accounts that offer aa range of pedophilic materials.

The researchers found “large-scale communities promoting criminal sex abuse” on Instagram.

After setting up test accounts, the researchers found they were soon being offered “suggested for you” recommendations to accounts that promote pedophilia. A number of these Instagram sites pushed to an outside website.

“That a team of three academics with limited access could find such a huge network should set off alarms at Meta,” Alex Stamos, the head of the Stanford Internet Observatory, and Meta’s former chief security officer, said of the study.

Meta said it has removed more than 490,000 accounts that breached its child safety policy in Janaury alone, and blocked more than 29,000 devices for policy violations between May 27 and June 2.

It said, in the wake of this report, it has “set up an internal task force to investigate these claims and immediately address them.”

“Child exploitation is a horrific crime,” a Meta spokesperson said.

“We work aggressively to fight it on and off our platforms, and to support law enforcement in its efforts to arrest and prosecute the criminals behind it.”